Capacitive Electric Motor in the future?

There is looooooong way between prototype demonstration and something that is ready for mass production.

Also, current Tesla Model S motor doesnt (AFAIK) use any rare earth metals.

I wonder how this deals with ionization that's sure to occur in the air gap. If you thought brush dust was bad...

TD1 said:

so really there are only advanteges, I hope someone can confront Elon with such a question at some point.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure Elon does not need to be confronted by people from about new technologies posted on youtube...

liuping said:

I'm pretty sure Elon does not need to be confronted by people from about new technologies posted on youtube...

Click to expand...

I don't think he means confront. But just to ask the question and see what Elons take on this type of motor is. I'd certainly like to hear what he has to say.

The video is comparing an old school brushed motor to their own new design. Sure an old series DC motor is quite inefficient (maybe 65% as an example) comparatively speaking plus they have consumable parts other than bearings (the brushes and the slip rings potentially). Brushed motors are already well on their way to the path of the Dodo so it is somewhat pointless comparing a new design like this to them.

Tesla nor any of modern EVs run a brushed design anyway. I scrapped brushed motors in my RC helis over a decade ago and have never looked back. This type of motor is already in mass production on a huge scale and already cheap even with their 'rare earth' magnets. Remember the term 'rare earth' is an over-used fallacy these days. Gold isn't classed as 'rare earth' but it certainly is. I don't expect any radials changes in electric motor design anytime soon because they run so well now. When modern AC induction (Tesla) and permanent magnet type brushless DC motors are currently running 90+% efficiency, your development is at point of diminishing returns.

I'm pretty sure Tesla's R&D radar is on battery development more than anything. That is where the gains are to be had. Their motor and power electronics already work and work very well - no need for radial revolutionary change just evolutionary development to squeeze every last drop out of them.

OK, slip rings and brushes are bad. Got it. But how do you connect 2 sets of plates that are rotating relative to each other without them?

Look at the video. At 4:07, the demo unit clearly has a brush and slip ring to transfer power to the rotating plate.

It's a capacitive power coupler, not a motor