Ricardo wins UK funding to develop sustainably-sourced electric motor for LCVs
By Bradley Osborne - 16th March 2022
UK – Ricardo plc, an automotive and clean energy engineering consultancy based in Shoreham-by-Sea, UK, has been awarded funding by the UK government to develop an electric motor dedicated to light commercial vehicle applications which is more sustainable than the current commercial market offerings.
Conventional electric motors use permanent magnets made of rare-earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, and samarium. Ricardo’s goal is to develop a motor with aluminium stator windings which will retain the key attributes of magnet-rich motors, thus without compromising on performance. It aims to eliminate the use of scarce resources such as rare-earth metals, and high acidification materials such as copper, by up to 12kg per motor.
