Electric Motors Must be Core Technology

Commentary

General Motors is far more famous for building fire-breathing small-block V-8s than eco-friendly electric motors. But at a recent event, it wisely threw down a gauntlet of sorts by announcing plans to do both types of powertrains equally well.

“I hope you can tell we’re geeked up about electric motors,” Larry Nitz, GM executive director-vehicle electrification engineering, tells journalists at a pilot plant in Wixom, MI, outside Detroit. The facility is building prototype electric motors for the recently announced Chevy Spark EV, due in 2013.

Located in a non-descript building in an industrial park, engineers are testing manufacturing equipment and processes to build the 114-hp (85-kW) electric motor that will power the Spark. Mass production begins at GM’s plant in White Marsh, MD, near Baltimore, in early 2013.

The White Marsh plant already builds the dual-mode hybrid-electric powertrain for GM’s light trucks.

“We recognize that increased electrification is part of the long-term evolution of the automobile,” Nitz says.

GM is laying the foundation to make a name for itself as a builder of exceptional electric motors. That includes enhancing its expertise in electric motor development and manufacturing as vehicle electrification grows.

Since 2003, the auto maker has spent $270 million quietly creating engineering, design and manufacturing capabilities for electric motors at four facilities in the U.S.

GM boasts it already has the largest battery lab in North America and says it is the first U.S. - based auto maker to design, develop, process and manufacture it own electric motors. Now it is stepping on the gas pedal, so to speak, investing money and know-how in new technologies and manufacturing systems.

Clearly, there are huge differences between the features that distinguish an iconic internal-combustion engine and those that make an electric motor stand out, but great powertrains of any sort share common traits such as efficiency, exceptional power density, reliability, affordability and good noise, vibration and harshness characteristics.

GM now is focusing on the development of permanent-magnet induction drive motors that employ oil-cooled copper bars that are more power-dense than conventional motors. And you can expect tuning the sound of whirring electric motors will become as fine an art as induction and exhaust tuning for traditional IC engines

In order to achieve these goals, GM needs to understand and engage the entire electric motor value chain, says Pete Savagian, engineering director-hybrid and electric architecture and electric motors.

Currently, GM uses electric motors as part of the propulsion system in nine vehicles including the Chevy Volt and Malibu Eco; Buick Lacrosse and Regal eAssist; and five light-truck models, from the Chevy Silverado Hybrid to the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

GM designs and builds 20% of the electric motors it uses in its portfolio of mild-hybrid, strong-hybrid and all-electric vehicles. About 60% of the motors are designed by GM and built by suppliers; the last 20% are designed and built by suppliers, Savagian says.

GM will continue to buy some electric motors in the future, he notes, but whether it makes or buys them, it is GM’s intention to master its understanding of how they all are designed and built.

Smart move. Powertrain is core technology whether it is a small-block V-8 or flux capacitor. Any auto maker that does not understand the importance of having electric drive motors that can be distinguished from its competitors will not be in business 20 years from now.

Manufacturing of drive motors still should be outsourced when it makes sense, but they all must be imbued with qualities that prevent them from becoming commodities. As the novelty of EVs wears off, buyers and enthusiasts will become more discriminating.

In the building adjacent to the electric motor facility in Wixom, buyers of Z06 and ZR1 Corvettes pay $5,800 extra to assemble their car’s engine. In 2025, will enthusiasts be paying extra to build high-powered electric motors for their sports cars? We can only hope.

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