Video: Durable electric motor features new cooling tech

Automotive supplier Mahle has reportedly developed the most durable electric motor available: the superior continuous torque (SCT) E-motor. The traction motor can run indefinitely with high performance due to its new cooling concept.

The new electric motor is clean, light and efficient and can be assembled without the use of rare Earths by customer request. The new development is suitable for passenger cars and commercial vehicles as well as construction machines and tractors.

In 2021, Mahle presented a wear-free and scalable traction motor for passenger cars that runs verySource: Mahle efficiently over a wide rpm range. The SCT E-motor, on the other hand, is designed in such a way that it is particularly efficient within a certain rpm range. Despite its very compact and light design, its continuous output is more than 90% of its peak output.

This high ratio will support the use of electric vehicles of all kinds even under demanding conditions. A classic example is driving an electric truck over mountain passes or the multiple sprints of a battery electric passenger car. These scenarios are only insufficiently covered by the electric motors currently available.

This resilience is achieved by the new electric motor through the use of an innovative integrated oil cooling, which not only makes it more robust but also allows the waste heat generated to be used in the vehicle’s complete system. The extremely compact design results in an advantage in the costs of materials and weight, as a lighter motor requires less material during manufacture and increases the possible net load in commercial vehicles.

Designers opted for a permanently excited motor, since this type enables a very compact design and no energy has to be transferred to the rotor as excitation current. This makes the motor efficient and wear-free. Neodymium magnets, currently the strongest permanent magnets that can be produced, are used to generate the magnetic field in the motor. To achieve greater independence from raw material prices and geopolitical developments, the SCT E- motor can also be designed without magnets.