In-wheel motor for a small hybrid electric vehicle: design, realization and experimental characterization

This paper presents a surface mounted (SM) permanent-magnet (PM) in-wheel motor for the propulsion of a small plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) for urban use. The electric machine is a fractional number of slots per number of poles motor using concentrated winding (wound around one tooth). First the authors detail the technical specifications: the maximal torque and power respectively equal to 240 N.m and 4.5 kW. Then they justify briefly the choice of the motor type and they present the optimal design and the mechanical analysis (vibrations). Finally, the realization of the motor is described (i.e., the stator laminations, the stator concentric windings, the external rotor structure...) and the experimental tests are presented to highlight the real performances of the in-wheel motor.