Difference engine

Nikola Tesla's revenge

Transport: The car industrys effort to reduce its dependence on rare-earth elements has prompted a revival in the fortunes of an old-fashioned sort of electric motor
Jun 2nd 2011 | from the print edition
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ONCE again, worrywarts are wringing their hands over possible shortages of so-called critical materials crucial for high-tech industries. In America the Department of Energy is fretting about materials used to manufacture wind turbines, electric vehicles, solar cells and energy-efficient lighting. The substances in question include a bunch of rare-earth metals and a few other elements whichused a pinch here, a pinch there enhance the way many industrial materials function. It is not as though the rare-earth elementsscandium, yttrium and lanthanum plus the 14 so-called lanthanidesare all that rare. Some are as abundant as nickel, copper or zinc. Even the two rarest (thulium and lutetium) are more abundant in the Earths crust than gold or platinum. A decade ago America was the worlds largest producer of rare-earth metals. But its huge open-cast mine at Mountain Pass, California, closed in 2002a victim mainly of Chinas drastically lower labour costs. Today, China produces 95% of the worlds supply of rare-earth metals, and has started limiting exports to keep the countrys own high-tech industries supplied. The rare-earth element that other industrial countries worry about most is neodymium. It is the key ingredient of superstrong permanent magnets. Over the past year the price of neodymium has quadrupled as electric motors that use permanent magnets instead of electromagnetic windings have gained even wider acceptance. Cheaper, smaller and more powerful, permanent-magnet motors and generators have made modern wind turbines and electric vehicles viable. That said, not all makers of electric cars have rushed to embrace permanent-magnet motors. The Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car based on a Lotus Elise, uses no rare-earth metals whatsoever. Nor does the Mini-E, an electric version of BMWs reinvention of the iconic 1960s car. Meanwhile, the company that pioneered much of todays electric-vehicle technology, AC Propulsion of San Dimas, California, has steered clear of permanent-magnet motors. Clearly, a number of manufacturers think the risk of relying on a single source of rare-earth metals is too high.

The latest carmaker to seek a rare-earth alternative is Toyota. The worlds largest carmaker is reported to be developing a neodymium-free electric motor for its expanding range of hybrid cars. Following in AC Propulsions tyre tracks, Toyota is believed to have based its new design on that electromotive industrial mainstay, the cheap and rugged alternating-current (AC) induction motor patented by Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor, back in 1888. Think of it as a rotating transformer, with the primary windings residing in a stationary casing (stator) and the secondary conductors attached to an inner shaft (rotor). The stator surrounds but does not touchthe rotor, which is free to rotate on its axis. An alternating current applied to the stators windings creates a rotating magnetic field, while simultaneously inducing a current in the separate conductors surrounding the rotor. With an alternating current now circulating within it, the rotor creates a rotating magnetic field of its own, which proceeds to chase the stators rotating fieldcausing the rotor to spin in the process and generate torque. Modern AC induction motors usually have three (or more) sets of stator windings, which smooths things out and allows more torque to be generated. Such machines are known as asynchronous motors, because the rotors magnetic field never catches up with the stators field. That distinguishes them from synchronous motors that use a permanent magnet in their rotors instead of a set of conductors. In a synchronous motor, the stators rotating magnetic field imposes an electromagnetic torque directly on the fixed magnetic field of the rotor, causing the latter assembly to spin on its axis in sync with the stator field. Hence the name. In the past the main problem with asynchronous induction motors was the difficulty of varying their speed. That is no longer an issue, thanks to modern semiconductor controls. Meanwhile, the induction motors big advantageapart from its simplicity and ruggednesshas always been its ability to tolerate a wide range of temperatures. Providing adequate cooling for the Toyota Priuss permanent-magnet motor adds significantly to the vehicles weight. An induction motor, by contrast, can be cooled passivelyand thereby dispense with the hefty radiator, cooling fan, water pump and associated plumbing. Who needs a gearbox? Better still, by being able to tolerate temperatures that cause permanent magnets to break down, an induction motor can be pushed (albeit briefly) to far higher levels of performance for, say, accelerating while overtaking or climbing a steep hill. Hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius or the Chevrolet Volt have to rely on their petrol engines and gearboxes for extra zip. By contrast, the Tesla Roadster uses just one gearsuch is the flexibility of its three-phase induction motor. In moving to a pure induction design, Toyota will be taking a page out of Teslas book, in both senses of the name. Weighing in at 115lb (52kg), the Roadsters tiny three-phase induction motor is no bigger than a watermelon. Yet it packs a hefty 288 horsepower (215 kilowatt) punch. More impressively, the motors 295lb-ft (400 newton-metres) of torque is available from rest to nearly 6,000 revolutions per minute, which eliminates the need for a conventional gearbox. The result is a motor that is light, compact and remarkably efficient. Overall, the Tesla Roadster achieves a battery-to-wheels efficiency of 88%. That is three times better than a conventional car. With its vast engineering resources, Toyota could well do even better. And somewhere, Nikola Tesla must be smiling.
from the print edition | Technology quarterly
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