AC Motors for Electric Cars

Electric cars have been around for a very long time now but the idea of driving one has never really caught on with the public until recently. The difference between an electric car motor and a hybrid is that electric cars are powered exclusively by electricity. Unlike a hybrid that uses a battery and motor to improve efficiency of its gasoline-fueled motor.

Batteries have improved over the years. The storage and cost of production of the batteries needed to power electric cars have always greatly changed. They are now more efficient, less expensive, and perform much longer than the outdated batteries of yesterday.

As you may be well aware, the motor is the heart of any vehicle. It is often the motor that is defining and sometimes limiting its performance. Electric cars can use either an AC or DC motor. Majority of the DC motors used in electric cars come from the electric forklift industry and may run from 96 to 192 volts.

If the electric vehicle is powered by an AC motor then the probability of it running 3 phase AC motor at 240 volts is high. It might also have its own 300 volt battery pack. DC motors are no doubt simpler and less expensive compared to its AC electric car motor counterpart. A typical DC motor will be around in the 20,000 watt – 30,000 watt range while a typical controller will be in the 40,000-watt 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 overdrive them.

Now let us compare that to the AC electric car motor. An AC motor selection or AC controllers may require a matching motor and most of the AC motors that are being marketed for electronic vehicles may come with a controller. The controllers that come with it may often include a built-in charger and DC-DC converter.

The power AC inverter is the main part of the electrical system of the AC EV motor car, and its role is simple. It should effortlessly convert the battery energy to the form that is deemed usable for the AC motor, and to deliver the right amount of this energy per driver’s demand.

AC installations allow you to use almost any kind of industrial three-phase AC motor. This is an advantage for you because that can mean that finding a motor with a specific size, power rating, and shape is so much easier to do. Another advantage of AC motors in electric cars is that most of them have a regen feature built into them. What that means is that when you hit the breaks or during breaking the AC EV motor in your vehicle turns into a generator and delivers power back into your batteries.

Other advantages when using or choosing the AC electric car motor are; electronic reverse, ability to adapt exact characteristics of the motor which also includes the throttle and brake potentiometers parameters, battery, and other hardware parameters via software, integrated components (main contactors and DC-DC converter), lack of brushes, high top RPM limit (about 10,000 for this motor), water cooling and high reliability.