Driven by the growth prospects of vehicle electrification in China and Europe, the sales volume of global electric vehicles has reached 3.2 million units in 2017, with an annual growth rate of 55%. China accounts for 1.2 million units, appearing at the top of the list, followed by the United States with its 750,000 units, along with Japan and Norway that ranked the third and the fourth respectively. Owing to the proliferating demand for electric vehicle motors accompanied by the policy effects and endorsement of governments worldwide, Fukuta Motors, the reputable and leading electric vehicle supply chain vendor in Taiwan, has been vigorously developing new motor drive system, specifically the creation of Copper Rotor Induction Motor (CR-IM) is gaining traction in the global induction motor market.
There are mainly two types of electric vehicle motors currently in use: Permanent Magnet Motor (PM) used by Toyota and Copper Rotor Induction Motor (CR-IM) used by Tesla. PM requires to maintain a certain magnetic force while running in the environment of high temperature and concussion, therefore it needs the rare earth (RE) to provide assistance. For example, the magnets used by Toyota Prius to operate motors comprise a total of almost 30% of the RE elements, mostly neodymium. This represents that PM has heavy reliance on RE metals. With major manufacturers spurring the development of pure electric vehicles, the usage of RE for motors is slated to increase. Based on the statistics, China’s neodymium metal output dominates around 80% of the world output at the price of 70 USD per kg, which is 40% higher than it was last year, but definitely a sharp drop in the price compared to the price of 500 USD in 2010 when China cut down its export of RE. Regardless, it is certain that the safety of material supply shall be the top priority each manufacturer concerns about, and hence with the features of abundant resources, high efficiency and simpler structure, CR-IM assuredly serves as a favourable alternative when considering the motor system for electric vehicles.
Given the fact that the magnet rotor utilized in PM does not require extra energy, it leads to a comparatively higher efficiency in contrast with an induction motor, which has a necessity for additional energy to create a magnetic field. Fukuta Motors resolved the issue by replacing aluminum rotor with the copper rotor, which employed highly sophisticated techniques, and with such techniques, the copper loss will drop by 30%.
According to the tests performed by Fukuta Motors, 60 kW PM efficiency is around 95.5%, whereas CR-IM and aluminum rotor induction motor are around 95.3% and 93.2%. The aforementioned testing results simply indicate the highest efficiency point of different materials without interference, yet if it is under practical circumstances including variants such as high speeding, decelerating, constant speeding, low speeding or stopping the continuous cycle; on the contrary, CR-IM surpasses its counterparts.
Charles Lee, the Taiwan Manager of International Copper Association, quoted the statement by Richard deFay, project manager for sustainable energy program that noted the misunderstandings about efficiency between magnet motor and induction motor in 2015 International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems (EEMODS), “ In this industry, many of us thought that magnet motor efficiency is more advantaged than induction motor, yet that’s not exactly a fact.”
An experiment was conducted in Advanced Energy Motor Laboratory in North Carolina, using the same inverter to examine the electrical loading and rotating speed efficiency between 7.5 hp (i.e., 5.5kW) CR-IM and PM from three different manufacturers. The report suggests the CR-IM performing higher efficiency compared to PM operating at different rotating speed (100~1800 RPM), which ensures that CR-IM is not inferior to PM.
Aside from rapid advancement in copper rotor production, Fukuta Motors has also embarked on a new phase in the integration of motor, driver, and controller. This so-called “Three in One” model is the significant invention Fukuta Motors launched this year, which slashed costs on power harness, coupling and cooling system. The motor, driver and controller of the original model require the cooling system respectively, but the cooling systems can easily malfunction due to overheating. The integration of “Three in One” model reduces the quantity of cooling system and shortens the wiring distance, which can as well decline the electromagnetic interference (EMI) to other electronic equipment. Therefore, “Three in One” model can offer a mixture of the following additional benefits to attract automobile manufacturers: saving the space and decreasing the occurrence of malfunctions.
Through the promotion of “Three in One” model, featuring all self-produced components and systems, Fukuta Motors is announcing its ambition to expand. Such package equipped with 350KW driver (around 450 hp) is priced at approximately 4,000 USD, while the price of a single driver in the market is at the price 2,000 USD, which shows the model created by Fukuta Motors has a relatively competitive price.
In June 2018, Fukuta Motors’ Powertrain Production & Development Center will be launched in Tongluo Science Park, and the new location is estimated to take up space around 80 thousand square meters, which will include 2 lines of copper rotor die cast line, 7 stations of progressive stamping steel sheet, and 1 electromagnetic steel plate heat treatment furnace. Fukuta Motors has scheduled to ramp up to 4 lines of copper rotor coating production, 14 stations of high speed puncher, 3 lines of electromagnetic steel plate heat treatment furnace, and 12 Tesla’s fast charging stations in the coming years. Other than maintaining strong relationship with the existing clients from the States, Fukuta Motors is currently showing interests in cooperating with clients from Japan and China, and also actively expanding further afield in Russia. It is predictable that Fukuta Motors will continue to shine as a leader in the industry with its long-term vision and promising growth potential.
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