Prototype of electric vehicle drive with twin water-cooled wheel direct drive motors

The availability of new high-energy permanent magnets at a reasonable cost has opened up the possibility of developing very compact brushless permanent magnet motors with substantially improved overload capability for wheel direct drive applications. Concerning the development of an electric propulsion system for a newly-conceived dual-power city car, this paper discusses the design, construction and laboratory testing of a twin wheel direct drive prototype based on a novel topology of water-cooled axial-flux permanent magnet motor.