Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Tim Burress works with a prototype motor that generates 75 percent more power than comparable commercial motors without the use of rare earth materials.
December 7, 2016 – A new motor developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory achieved 75 percent higher power than a comparably sized commercial motor for electric vehicles. The prototype motor uses ferrite, iron-based, permanent magnets instead of the expensive imported rare earth permanent magnets common in motors today. “We are focused on increasing energy security for the nation by designing efficient high performance motors built with materials that are both economical and abundantly available here in the United States,” said ORNL’s Tim Burress. “We’ve demonstrated a peak power of 103 kilowatts so far, and we are still fine tuning the motor design.”
