The automotive supplier Mahle has announced the development of a durable electric motor - SCT E-motor - that can run indefinitely with high performance.
A press statement issued by the company said that this resilience is achieved through an innovative integrated oil cooling, which makes it more robust and allows the waste heat generated to be used in the vehicle’s complete system. At the same time, the extremely compact design results in an advantage in the costs of materials and weight—a lighter motor requires less material during manufacture and increases the possible net load in commercial vehicles.
Besides, the new electric motor is surpassingly clean, light, and efficient and can be assembled without using rare-earth by customer request. The new development is suitable for passenger cars and commercial vehicles as well as construction machines and tractors. With the SCT E-motor, the company thus becomes a full-range provider in the field of electric drives and covers all needs from e-scooters to heavy-duty commercial vehicles as well as off-road and industrial applications.
In designing the product, the company opted for what is known as a permanently excited motor since this type enables a very compact design, and no energy has to be transferred to the rotor as 'excitation current.' This makes the motor efficient and wear-free. Neodymium magnets, currently the strongest permanent magnets that can be produced, are used to generate the magnetic field in the motor. However, to achieve greater independence from raw material prices and geopolitical developments, the SCT E- motor can also be designed without magnets for greater independence. Thanks to the unique contactless transformer developed by the company, the magnet-free variant would also be wear-free and run efficiently while only requiring slightly more assembly space.
Martin Berger, Director of Corporate Research and Advanced Engineering, Mahle, said, “Building large electric motors that deliver short-term high performance is easy. What was still lacking on the market until now were durable yet compact drives to make electric vehicles unrestricted for everyday use. Our new SCT E-motor is the solution.”
On the drivetrain side, this clears the way for replacing the combustion engine in all vehicle classes. In 2021, the company presented a groundbreaking wear-free and scalable traction motor for passenger cars that runs efficiently over a wide rpm range.
The SCT E-motor, on the other hand, is designed in such a way that it is particularly efficient within a certain rpm range. Despite its compact and light design, its continuous output is more than 90% of its peak output. Unique on the market, this groundbreaking high ratio means a technological leap and allows the use of electric vehicles of all kinds, even under demanding conditions. A classic example is driving an electric truck over mountain passes or the multiple sprints of a battery-electric passenger car. These scenarios are only insufficiently covered by the electric motors available on the market up to now, the company added.