- Horse Powertrain’s new range-extended electric vehicle generator combines a methanol-burning engine and axial-flux motors.
- The powertrain can produce up to 141 horsepower.
- Horse’s axial-flux motors are 46 percent shorter than comparable radial-flux motors while producing 63 percent more power.
Horse Powertrain has a new engine that runs on, believe it or not, methanol. It’s part of a new hybrid package designed as a generator for a battery-electric vehicle, featuring compact axial-flux motors.
The company, a joint venture between Renault Group and Geely, claims its motors are 46 shorter than comparable radial-flux motors while producing 63 percent more power. The D20 Methanol range extender powertrain, which weighs 375 pounds, can produce up to 141 horsepower.
The powertrain has a 47-percent fuel-to-energy conversion ratio, which means it requires just 5.2 gallons of gas to recharge a 40-kilowatt-hour battery. The powertrain also features a high-energy ignition system that enables the engine to achieve ultra-lean methanol combustion.
The engine meets both European and Chinese emissions regulations.
Horse’s Axial-Flux Motors
The D20 Methanol features a new generator architecture that mounts the axial-flux motors directly to the engine’s crankshaft. Axial motors layer the rotor and stator as discs stacked on top of each other, creating a compact pancake design.
Traditional radial-flux motors tend to be bigger due to their cylindrical shape, with the rotor existing inside the stator. The D20 has a yokeless design that allows Horse to operate two rotors surrounding a single stator.
According to the company, the motor has an electrical efficiency of 96.4 percent. It takes approximately 2.1 kilowatt-hours of methanol burned to produce 1 kilowatt-hour of electrical energy. Fortune Zhao, Horse Powertrain’s CTO, said:
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Source: HORSE Powertrain
‘The Horse D20 Methanol is a staging ground for a range of cutting-edge technologies to deliver a powertrain of unparalleled compactness and efficiency. This can be seen in our use of an axial flux motor to achieve the necessary width and volumetric power density for the unit, marking one of the first uses of the technology in a mass-market automotive powertrain.’
Motor1’s Take: Horse Powertrain continues to innovate the combustion engine with a focus on lowering emissions. The company has produced several powertrain types that have improved the efficiency of combustion engines, and while we will never see the Horse D20 Methanol in America anytime soon, other technologies from the company might end up here one day.
Source:
Horse Powertrains
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