Renault Group, Valeo and Valeo Siemens eAutomotive to develop and manufacture rare-earth-free automotive electric motor
11 February 2022
Renault Group, Valeo and Valeo Siemens eAutomotive have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a strategic partnership for the design, co-development and manufacture in France of a new-generation automotive electric motor, eliminating the use of rare earths.
The three partners will combine their know-how and recognized expertise to design a unique electric powertrain system that is unparalleled worldwide, offering more power on less energy, without the use of rare earths.
Under this partnership, each of the three partners will contribute to the development and production of the two key parts of the electric motor: the rotor and the stator.
Renault will develop and produce the EESM (electrically excited synchronous motor) rotor technology, designed without the use of rare earths, it offers enhanced energy performance. In addition to the supply of components based on each company’s best expertise, the overall architecture of the all-in-one motor for Renault Group will also be designed by Renault.
Valeo and Valeo Siemens eAutomotive will develop and produce the stator, which is based on Valeo’s technological expertise in copper wire assembly. Thanks to its unique know-how in this field, which allows it to use a higher density of copper in the stator, Valeo is able to generate more power without having to use more electrical energy.
Renault Group, Valeo and Valeo Siemens eAutomotive will be the first to mass produce a 200kW electric motor without using rare earths, starting in 2027. Production of the motor for the automaker’s own needs will be based at Renault Group’s Cléon plant in Normandy, France.
- Add this to the fact that researchers at Rice University for instance have also seemed optimistic in the fairly recent past about eventually being able to replace copper windings in motors with more efficient so-called "carbon nanotube yarns".
See:
"Carbon Nanotube Yarns Could Replace Copper Windings in Electric Motors"
at:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/carbon-nanotube-yarns-set-to-replace-copper-windings-in-electric-motors
Extract:
"A staggering fact is that motors and motor driven systems account for between 43 percent and 46 percent of all global electricity consumption demonstrating that carbon nanotubes braided into wires could outperform copper. Needless to say, if electric motors could be made to run more efficiently, energy consumption would fall. With research out of Rice University back in 2011 in conducting electricity, it looked like there would soon be a new way to create those improved efficiencies. " "Building on that research, a team at the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland has replaced the copper windings used to conduct electricity in electric motors with a woven material made from threads of carbon nanotubes and achieved remarkable new efficiencies in the motors: "If we keep the electrical machine design parameters unchanged and only replace copper with future carbon nanotube wires, it is possible to reduce the Joule losses in the windings to half of the present-day machine losses" said Professor Juha Pyrhönen, who has led the design of the prototype at LUT, in a press release."
Cambridge University researchers have also investigated similar and potentially highly disruptive/transformative carbon nanotube alternatives to copper windings - but there doesn't yet appear to be a massive tsunami of urgent media or Wall St. enthusiasm for the idea.
Intriguingly, the website www.Mining,com does quite frequently focus on (greener) alternatives to mining raw materials:
https://www.mining.com/researchers-make-carbon-wire-that-could-replace-copper-54552/
Paul G(EVUK)
Posted by: EVUK_co_uk | 11 February 2022 at 12:47 PM
This "old hat" was already worn in 2014. Since then, all of respective industry is still hibernating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg_QZuVKWws
Posted by: yoatmon | 12 February 2022 at 03:11 AM
There is an inductively coupled rotor design
Posted by: SJC | 12 February 2022 at 08:03 PM