Vaionic eDrives - A Technology Change

Electromobility is a key pillar of the mobility transition as part of the transformation process towards a CO2-neutral society. From 2035, new diesel or petrol-powered cars cannot be registered in Europe anymore; similar regulations will also apply to other markets worldwide in the future. The automotive industry is therefore under pressure to act. If European manufacturers do not manage to offer cost competitive battery electric vehicles (BEV) in the near future, there is a risk that new players, especially Chinese OEMs, will dominate the market - similar to the development in the traction battery sector. At the same time, the German government, like that of most neighboring countries, must set clear incentives – alongside necessary infrastructure measures – as decision support for consumers to choose a vehicle that does not rely on fossil fuels for driving. In Norway, this is already working very impressively, with registration figures for BEVs of >95%.

The vast majority of BEV manufacturers have so far relied on highly efficient permanent magnet synchronous machines (PSM) in radial flux design, which account for around 85% of electric motors worldwide. Compared to asynchronous machines (ASM), these generally offer higher efficiencies and lower manufacturing costs compared to externally excited machines, which has a correspondingly positive effect on range and cost.

ASMs are often used as secondary drives due to their low drag losses, which have relatively low impact on system efficiency in the WLTP driving cycle. The use of drive disconnect couplings, so-called disconnect units (DCU), significantly increase the efficiency of an AWD vehicle, as well as the costs and complexity of the drive and its control, which is why they can only be found in a few vehicles up until now.

Vaionic has now developed a new type of motor that, in contrast to the state-of-the-art described above, does not any require soft magnetic material in the stator: the ironless axial flux machine, or “iPSM” (ironless PSM) - a technology that no vehicle has used to date. High partial load efficiencies at higher speeds, above-average power densities, no electro-magnetic drag losses and simple adaption of power to the application requirements at lowest total manufacturing costs (TMC) characterize this machine and make it a cost-efficient alternative in a wide range of applications.

In the next blog post, you will learn in what field of applications the ironless PSM (iPSM) outperforms the conventional PSM. Stay tuned!