Currently, interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors with rare-earth (RE) magnets are almost universally used for hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) because of their superior properties, particularly power density. However, there is now a distinct possibility of limited supply or very high cost of RE magnets that could make IPM motors unavailable or too expensive. Because development of electric motors is a critical part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Power Electronics and Motors activity, DOE needs to determine which options should be investigated and what barriers should be addressed. Therefore, in order to provide a basis for deciding which research topics should be pursued, an assessment of various motor technologies was conducted to determine which, if any, is potentially capable of meeting FreedomCAR 2015 and 2020 targets. Highest priority was given to IPM, surface mounted permanent magnet (SPM), induction, and switched reluctance (SR) motors. Also of interest, but with lesser emphasis, were wheel motors, multiple-rotor motors, motors with external excitation, and several others that emerged from the assessment. Cost and power density (from a design perspective, the power density criterion translates to torque density) are emerging as the two most important properties of motors for traction drives in hybrid and EVs, although efficiency and specific power also are very important. The primary approach for this assessment involved interviews with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), their suppliers, and other technical experts. For each technology, the following issues were discussed: (1) The current state-of-the-art performance and cost
(2) Recent trends in the technology
(3) Inherent characteristics of the motor - which ones limit the ability of the technology to meet the targets and which ones aid in meeting the target
(4) What research and development (R&
D) would be needed to meet the targets
and (5) The potential for the technology to meet the targets. The interviews were supplemented with information from past Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) reports, previous assessments that were conducted in 2004, and literature on magnet technology. The results of the assessment validated the DOE strategy involving three parallel paths: (1) there is enough of a possibility that RE magnets will continue to be available, either from sources outside China or from increased production in China, that development of IPM motors using RE magnets should be continued with emphasis on meeting the cost target. (2) yet the possibility that RE magnets may become unavailable or too expensive justifies efforts to develop innovative designs for permanent magnet (PM) motors that do not use RE magnets. Possible other magnets that may be substituted for RE magnets include samarium-cobalt (Sm-Co), Alnico, and ferrites. Alternatively, efforts to develop motors that do not use PMs but offer attributes similar to IPM motors also are encouraged. (3) New magnet materials using new alloys or processing techniques that would be less expensive or have comparable or superior properties to existing materials should be developed if possible. IPM motors are by far the most popular choice for hybrid and EVs because of their high power density, specific power, and constant power-speed ratio (CPSR). Performance of these motors is optimized when the strongest possible magnets - i.e., RE neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets - are used.