Energy efficiency and potentials of electric motor types for wheel hub applications

Nearly all OEMs worldwide try to electrify their powertrain systems. This is certainly a necessity in order to fulfill the gradually changing and challenging political requirements concerning environmental restrictions. Electric motors offer potential characteristics to overcome these challenging tasks. Today, induction and synchronous motors represent reasonable alternatives to conventional combustion engines, even due to their established assembling and their relatively low cost production. This article compares the energy consumption of induction motors (IM), synchronous motors with surface mounted magnets (SPM) and synchronous motors with interior mounted magnets (IPM) at different driving cycles. The paper intends to identify a suitable electric motor type for wheel hub applications.