Skip to main content

Confusion over electric motors for heavy trucks

According to Dr Peter Harrop of research company IDTechEx, there is still no agreement on the best type of electric motor to use in heavy trucks. The company’s analysis indicates that the booming, confusing traction motor business will rise to around US$400 billion in 2027. Its new report, Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2017-2027 navigates the jargon, the design options and the disagreements. The changing needs and evolving technology are matched to create forecasts and technology timelines based
December 19, 2016 Read time: 4 mins
According to Dr Peter Harrop of research company 6582 IDTechEx, there is still no agreement on the best type of electric motor to use in heavy trucks.

The company’s analysis indicates that the booming, confusing traction motor business will rise to around US$400 billion in 2027. Its new report, Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2017-2027 navigates the jargon, the design options and the disagreements. The changing needs and evolving technology are matched to create forecasts and technology timelines based on intensive recent travel and interviews by PhD level analysts.
 
Rotating electric machines (REM) propel electric vehicles at least some all of the time by land, water and air. In a hybrid the motor may sometimes have to run hotter due to hot engine systems nearby and tougher duty cycles. This affects motor design as do cost-performance compromises for the very different duty cycles and environments experienced by vehicles land, water and air. Off-road vehicle REMs are very different from on-road. The second most expensive part of an EV after the energy storage is typically the REM system including its intimately related motor controller.
 
The report reveals how the REM system is taking a larger share of cost over the years as simpler batteries reduce in cost. By contrast, REM systems are variously being asked to grab regenerative energy, eliminate transmission, provide better speed/ torque characteristics and even form part of the structure such as tucked into the wheel with brake and controller.  In hybrids add take-off. Creeping and active cruising with engine off and start and boost the engine. Crucially, in addition to becoming motor-generators, more REMs are being used per vehicle for reasons explained in the report which has in-wheel forecasts for that form of multi-motor.
 
Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2017-2027 reports that, increasingly, the choice of REM system benefits the selling propositions of the vehicle. Where it eliminates the need for a gearbox it can increase range 15%. Extreme power-to-weight ratio REMs are sought for most vehicles.
 
A pure-electric heavy construction vehicle with several quiet REMs appropriately placed may have vectored traction so it can cross roads without damaging them and be legally used indoors and at night time as needed. It may operate implements with improved precision and response time and create electricity instead of heat when the vehicle or the implements brake. Start-stop is smoother. Emissions, acceleration, ride, fuel consumption and autonomy of navigation and energy are improved with better REMs. Emissions are reduced or eliminated. There are chapters on how this all fits in with all vehicles, the technology being fully explained.
 
Mechanical parts are rapidly becoming replaced by electrical and electronic ones, creating many new business opportunities. For instance there is a shortage of good designers of motor controllers. The variety of EVs is becoming greater so we now have special coreless motors for the multi-billion dollar market for drones. Small agricultural robots are being contemplated for agriculture that will change completely the type of REM system required.

The report analyses 48V mild hybrid motor-generators as well because later versions of these cars, light commercial vehicles and trucks will have brief electric traction modes. They are the lowest cost way of modifying internal combustion vehicle production to stay legal under impending carbon dioxide emissions laws and they give useful fuel saving but the REM is challenging.
 
Ten important trends receive particular attention in the report are: Multifunction; Proliferation; Integration; Power increase; Voltage increase; Less metal/more electronics; New technology references; Changed location; Less cooling.
 
Harrop says it is not all confusing. Quadcopters nearly all have an out-runner PM REM and forklifts are largely hooked on asynchronous motors. Sense is made of the rest through infograms, roadmaps and forecasts.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK government to invest in autonomous cars, low emission vehicles
    November 24, 2016
    Presenting his Autumn Statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced investment in transportation, including £390 million for future transport and a major new investment in the UK transport infrastructure. The £390 million investment in future technology includes: investment in testing infrastructure for driverless cars; provision of at least 550 new electric and hydrogen buses, reduce the emissions of 1,500 existing buses and support taxis to become zero emission; installation of more charging points fo
  • World Congress celebrates coming of age in Detroit
    September 7, 2014
    This is the 21st ITS World Congress and as Scott Belcher, President and CEO of ITS America, puts the event in its wider context, it’s clear that ITS has come of age
  • Aurora starts driverless delivery in Texas
    May 2, 2025
    Firm says it is first to operate commercial, self-drive heavy truck service in US
  • Traffic to flow freely over world’s widest bridge
    November 13, 2012
    Pete Goldin reports on a new Egis project in Canada, providing open road tolling operations for the widest bridge in the world. A bridge can present a bottleneck in a system of roads or it can support the smooth and unobstructed flow of traffic. Much depends on the bridge design, surrounding infrastructure and tolling system. By adding lanes and deploying open road tolling (ORT), the new Port Mann Bridge located in the metropolitan Vancouver area in British Columbia, will alleviate congestion at one of the