Motors For Electric Cars Family Tree

A quick overview of Electric Motors commonly used in Electric Cars and Electric Car Conversions.

Motors For Electric Cars Family Tree

Electric Cars obviously use Electric Motors to propel the car. With a number of types of Electric Motors to choose from, it is easy get confused. This confusion means it becomes difficult to select a compatible motor controller. As an Electric Car Conversion enthusiast, I’ve been through the path of trying to understand the variety of Electric Motors available. What made it more difficult was the terminology used and the abbreviations used. For example, I would visit web sites that sold Electric Motors. They might talk about a Sep Ex. After a while, I realized they meant Separately Excited (where the field windings of the Electric Motor are energized from a current source that can be separate to the current used to power the Electric Motor.

There are a numerous types of Electric Motors available, but the “Motors For Electric Cars Family Tree” focuses on the common Electric Motors found in Electric Cars and Electric Motors used in Electric Car Conversions.

Although, Electric Motors work on the same fundamental basic principles, each type of Electric Motor has distinct characteristics which has an impact on the Motor Controller you select for that particular Electric Motor. These distinct characteristics are due to how the particular Electric Motor applies or uses the fundamental basic principles. I aim to elaborate on each type of Electric Motor outlined in the above Family Tree diagram and describe the characteristics of them, how they work and the clues to look for when trying to identify each type of above mentioned Electric Motor. This information becomes important when you are choosing an Electric Motor for your Electric Car Conversion or when an opportunity to acquire an Electric Motor comes your way. There are occasions where you might come across an Electric Motor that is being disposed off, such as when a factory is upgrading their equipment. Often, the people responsible for disposal of equipment are not required to have an understanding or awareness of Electric Motors. This ignorance on their part means that you might be able to pick up a bargain or if you are being sold the wrong Electric Motor, you have a better chance of detecting it, provided you understand and can identify the distinct characteristics of the various types of Electric Motors out there.

In the next few weeks, I will be having individual posts about the various types of Electric Motors used in Electric Cars. These posts will be linked from the above Family Tree diagram, so please bookmark this article and come back to it on a regular basis.

This is Crazy Al signing out.

Tags: cars family tree, electric motors used in electric cars, motors used in electric cars
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