High Power Very Low Voltage Electric Motor for Electric Vehicle

Electric vehicles are often designed in the same way as their conventional counterparts based on the internal combustion engine, they are heavy machines for comfort and safety reasons, and increasingly powerful. Under these conditions, in order to simplify the motor electrical supply system by reducing the current levels, the voltage chosen for the battery is very high and can go up to 700 V. However, for many applications where the power is relatively low (< 30 kW per motor), it can be more beneficial to size the system at very low voltage (< 60 V). This approach allows to overcome many constraining safety requirements and also to use off-the-shelf components (motor controllers, connectors, etc.) that are more easily available on the market in this voltage range. There are also many regulatory provisions that may require to stay within this voltage limit. This article presents a variety of very low voltage motorisation solutions with a required power up to 100kW. They use two complementary approaches. The first is to implement an original permanent magnet synchronous machine technology with an optimised armature winding for low voltage operation. The second is based on power splitting where the electrical machine being designed to be driven by multiple controllers. Many examples of low-voltage motorised vehicles (sporty vehicle, tractor, re-motorised automobile, etc.) are illustrated in this article.