Introduction

Driven by the environmental concerns, it is now commonly acknowledged that conventional fossil fuel-powered vehicles will gradually phase out and be vastly replaced by electrified vehicles. In order to boost this transition, many countries have strengthened their policy support covering from the development of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and pure electric vehicles (EVs) down to their deployment into the market. This has become an ongoing profound revolution in the car industry, not only because of the transition of technologies and the reshuffling of the downstream powertrain supply chains, but also due to many more niche competitors joining this race. It can be predicted that the future of the car industry will be very much reshaped in the coming dozens of years if not shorter. In this chapter, commercial candidates of HEV/EV traction motors are reviewed. Selection criteria of motor drive technologies for automotive applications are summarized.