AC motors for electric cars
Electric cars have been around for a long time, but the idea of driving one never caught on with the public until recently. The difference between an electric motor car and a hybrid one is that electric cars are powered exclusively by electricity. Unlike a hybrid that uses a battery and motor to improve the efficiency of your gasoline engine.
Batteries have gotten better over the years. The storage and production cost of the batteries needed to power electric cars have always changed a lot. They are now more efficient, less expensive, and last much longer than the outdated batteries of yesterday.
As you well know, the engine is the heart of any vehicle. It is often the engine that defines and sometimes limits its performance. Electric cars can use an AC or DC motor. Most of the DC motors used in electric cars come from the electric forklift industry and can run between 96 and 192 volts.
If the electric vehicle is powered by an AC motor, the probability that it will be powered by a 240 volt 3-phase AC motor is high. You could also have your own 300 volt battery pack. DC motors are certainly simpler and less expensive compared to their AC electric car motor counterpart. A typical DC motor will be in the 20,000 to 30,000 watt range, while a typical controller will be in the 40,000 to 60,000 watt range (for example, a 96 volt controller will deliver a maximum of 400 or 600 amps). ) . The nice thing about DC motors is that you can overload them.
Now let’s compare that to an AC electric car motor. Select AC motors or AC controllers may require a matching motor and most AC motors marketed for e-vehicles can come with a controller. Controllers that come with it can often include a built-in charger and DC-DC converter.
The power AC inverter is the main part of the AC EV car electrical system, and its function is simple. It should effortlessly convert battery power to whatever form is deemed usable for the AC motor and deliver the correct amount of this power based on driver demand.
AC installations allow you to use almost any type of industrial three-phase AC motor. This is to your advantage because it can mean that finding a motor with a specific size, power rating, and shape is much easier to do. Another advantage of AC motors in electric cars is that most of them have a built-in regeneration function. What that means is that when you hit the brakes or during braking, the AC EV motor in your vehicle turns into a generator, putting power back into your batteries.
Other advantages when using or choosing the AC electric car motor are; electronic reversing, ability to tailor exact motor characteristics which also includes throttle and brake potentiometer parameters, battery and other hardware parameters via software, embedded components (main contactors and DC-DC converter), lack of brushes, high RPM upper limit (around 10,000 for this motor), water cooling, and high reliability.