High performance permanent magnet drive for electric vehicles

The authors describe some recent design and development work on a drive system for a gas turbine/electric vehicle. The application was a high performance sports car being studied by one of the major international car companies. The chosen gas turbine engine was a compact dual rated engine under development within the Rolls-Royce Group. The gas turbine had a specified peak power rating of 120 kW and was to be configured so as to be highly efficient in its normal operating mode at about 40 kW. The electric transmission option was investigated principally because it would give the vehicle 4-wheel drive capability with full traction control at each wheel and with scope for decoupling the turbine lag which has proved to be a problem on previous gas turbine driven vehicles