Classical Electric Machines for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Classical electric machines, including DC machines, induction or asynchronous machines, and synchronous machines, play a key role in modern electric vehicle (EV) propulsion. Because of the maturity and simplicity, DC machines have been the favorable candidate for early EV traction motors. Due to the disadvantages of carbon brushes and commutators, their reliability and efficiency limit the wide application. Nowadays, AC machines are mainly applied for modern EV propulsion, primarily squirrel-cage induction machines (SCIMs), wound-rotor synchronous machines (WRSMs), and permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs). Especially, SCIMs and PMSMs are becoming the predominant traction motors in the market share for modern EVs recently. In this chapter, the classical electric machines, namely, DC machines, SCIMs, WRSMs, and PMSMs are presented. Their configurations, operating principle, mathematical modeling, and control methods are briefly discussed.