Comparative study of using different electric motors in the electric vehicles

In this paper, different electric motors are studied and compared to see the benefits of each motor and the one that is more suitable to be used in the electric vehicle (EV) applications. There are five main electric motor types, DC, induction, permanent magnet synchronous, switched reluctance and brushless DC motors are studied. It is concluded that although the induction motors technology is more mature than others, for the EV applications the brushless DC and permanent magnet motors are more suitable than others. The use of these motors will result in less pollution, less fuel consumption and higher power to volume ratio. The reducing prices of the permanent magnet materials and the trend of increasing efficiency in the permanent magnet and brushless DC motors make them more and more attractive for the EV applications.