Mahle, the German automotive supplier, has just announced that its new superior continuous torque (SCT) electric motor is considerably more durable than any other design currently in use. The company notes that this motor was designed for pretty much any type of vehicle (passenger cars and commercial uses) or machinery (farming or construction) and that it “can run indefinitely with high performance.”
According to Martin Berger, Vice President Corporate Research and Advanced Engineering at Mahle,
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.
Gallery: Mahle Superior Continuous Torque (SCT) Electric Motor
The secret behind this increase in durability is a new way of cooling the motor. Mahle used integrated oil cooling, which is able to use the heat generated within the vehicle’s system. The company also notes that it was able to make the SCT motor very compact, making it suitable for a very wide range of potential uses.
The motor is of the permanently excited variety, a solution chosen because with this design no energy is transferred to the rotor as excitation current and this minimizes internal wear. Mahle designed the motor to run both with neodymium magnets, currently the strongest type of magnet in existence, but also without magnets altogether, although this magnet-free version of the motor will be a bit bigger in size.
Regarding this second type of motor (pictured above), Martin Berger says
Our magnet-free motor can certainly be described as a breakthrough, because it provides several advantages that have not yet been combined in a product of this type. As a result, we can offer our customers a product with outstanding efficiency at a comparatively low cost.
Both these motors will be revealed to the public at IAA Transportation 2022 in Hanover, Germany in September.
Source: Mahle