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Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

supercarblondie.com

71–80 of 616 posts

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#71
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weight reductions on an electric car are self-reinforcing. If you reduce the weight of a component, the battery can become (slightly) smaller, which again reduces weight. At a certain amount of reduction this will allow you to make the whole structure lighter, which will again allow for a smaller battery. So yeah, weight reduction on EVs is great.

Also not considered is that the announcement is for 740bhp motor. The Tesla model 3 has a vehicle output of about 400 hp. I’m not sure of all the design specs, but it seems clear to me that a smaller version of these motors could suffice to drive a 3 equivalent vehicle at 1/2 the output and still be more than sufficient. So let’s say maybe 15lbs each, vs current equivalent 70lbs each. It’s not major total weight impa…

The e-motor is often “overpowered” in EVs (compared to ICEs) to make regenerative braking efficient, i.e. capture meaningful energy from braking.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#73
post #15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But EVs are already heavy because of the battery. I suppose percentage-wise the motors don't make much of a difference (?)

The issue with this type of motor is that it is part of the unsprung weight since it is inside the wheel. This is probably why savings here matter a lot more (or at least in a very different way) than the battery weight.

Why would it have to be unsprung? They are not unsprung in the vehicle shown in the article.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#74
post #38

28 pounds - that's gigantic compared to this https://now.tufts.edu/2011/09/05/worlds-smallest-electric-mo...

> "There has been significant progress in the construction of molecular motors powered by light and by chemical reactions, but this is the first time that electrically-driven molecular motors have been demonstrated, despite a few theoretical proposals," says Sykes. "We have been able to show that you can provide electricity to a single molecule and get it to do something that is not just random."

"something that is not just random" ==> Probably a long way away from something in production. I wouldn't hold off on any urgent transportation needs waiting on this tech.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#75
post #55
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link you're quoting, the one posted, is a second hand US report. The primary company link is from a UK subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz and is (almost) fully metric (the fundemental units US weights are officially defined with respect to (for more than a century now)). See: https://yasa.com/news/yasa-smashes-own-unofficial-power-dens... Earlier in the summer YASA achieved 550kW (738bhp) from a 13.1kg version of its ne…

> The link you're quoting, the one posted, is a second hand US report. You can tell, because a proper Brit would have given it as 2 stone, not 28 pound.

That seems unlikely, a proper Brit would know that a stone is defined for body weight (14 avoirdupois pounds), Wool (14, 15, or 24 pounds depending on wool class), Wax (12 pounds), Sugar and spice (8 pounds), or for Beef and mutton (8 pounds).

( Of course Scottish Britains used 16 Scottish pounds for a Scottish stone ).

The point being that 'precious' metals used a different weight measure altogether .. (common lead often used a 12 pound stone).

Such a fun system.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#76
post #37
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with this type of motor is that it is part of the unsprung weight since it is inside the wheel. This is probably why savings here matter a lot more (or at least in a very different way) than the battery weight.

Ok, now I understand why this motor is only used in supercars - installing four (or even only two - according to https://www.mercedes-benz.de/passengercars/technology/concep... , even the AMG GT-XX has "only" three of them) hub motors with twice the power of a Tesla Model 3 in any other car would be ridiculous. So, the actual challenge is to make this motor even smaller while keeping the same power to weight ratio, s…

But why limit only to cars? Can this be used for motorcycles, e-bikes, electric buses, train wheels, e-unicycles, electric golf carts, etc?

There are probably a range of application where in-wheel makes perfect sense.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#77
post #9
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But EVs are already heavy because of the battery. I suppose percentage-wise the motors don't make much of a difference (?)

Yea that's the thing right, the battery is so very much of the weight that optimizing the other parts are "meh" at this point. What is cool is that the 600Wh/kg solid state batteries seems like they are really finally here soon :) i.e removing 200-300kg from a car in one go will be a game changer.

Manufacturers may just keep the battery size and market the improved range instead? Smaller cars in urban and suburban environments have always had lots of benefits, but since many of them are collective in nature, it has largely fallen on tragedy of the commons, and we got larger cars with larger hoods instead.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#78

> According to YASA, this is achieved without using exotic or expensive materials, so the design could actually be scalable once the demand kicks in. So, no rare-earth magnets? And it will be cheaper than existing motors?

Rare-earth magnets do not fall under “exotic”.

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#79
post #18

Everything but the Metric System: “The new YASA axial flux motor weighs just 28 pounds, or about the same as a small dog.” :)

Sometimes leads to humorous effect https://x.com/SheriffAlert/status/1221881862244749315

> Large boulder the size of a small boulder is completely blocking east-bound lane Highway 145 mm78 at Silverpick Rd

Re: Tiny electric motor can produce more than 1,000 horsepower

#80
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mercedes should buy Tesla you mean.

Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) – ~ US$1.50 trillion Mercedes‑Benz Group AG (MBG.DE) – ~ US$62 billion

MBG AG:

Revenue - €153.2 billion (2023)

Production output - 2,491,600

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Tesla:

Production output - 1,773,443 vehicles (2024)

Revenue - US$97.7 billion (2024)

--

Maybe Tesla is just hillariously overvalued and MBG AG can afford them once the hype bubble implodes.

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