Want V8 personality in an EV? Cadillac has a vision

Innovation could provide future electric motors with added personality and differentiation, in a similar way to the array of engine options in the internal combustion world.

Electric motors are set to undergo an intensive evolution that will inject them with more personality and improvements to efficiency, according to executive chief engineer of Cadillac, Brandon Vivian.

The man helping forge a new EV path for the quintessentially American brand says future e-motors will be differentiated more than they are today, helping manufacturers separate mainstream models from high performance variants with added excitement or driving fizz.

As it surges towards an EV-only future – albeit one that could be delayed beyond the original 2030 timeframe – Vivian says e-motors are a major focus for innovation.

Just like a V8 engine has a distinctive sound – and one from Ferrari is very different to one from Chevrolet or Ford – Vivian says there will be differences in the performance characteristics of electric motors.

“At the higher end you'll see differentiation,” said Vivian of upcoming EVs.

“You’ll see different technologies being used. Already at the very high end of the market there’s different ways to control flux,” he added.

While it’s unlikely electric motors will ever offer the range of sounds and performance characteristics of a petrol engine (a three-cylinder is poles apart from a V10) Vivian says the differentiation with e-motors could grow, in part because of the desire to stand out.

Right now, only a couple of car-makers are taking risks with ‘performance’ inspired e-motor sound tracks, chief among them the ballistic Hyundai IONIQ 5 N which does a reasonable job of mimicking a combustion engine, complete with exhaust pops and crackles.

It remains to be seen whether Cadillac will attempt to reproduce or synthesise combustion engine acoustics, but one thing is certain, performance characteristics will be unique.

The Cadillac engineering chief says the biggest thing to separate electric motors designed to simply get the job done from those that are about fun and big performance is cooling systems, inverters and other associated systems that allow for big power.

“Where you’re going to see a lot of differentiation is your ability to take power in or power out with batteries and cooling,” he said.

“The number one differentiation is how fast you can take power in and out.”

And, of course, the make-up of electric motors could change if engineers work out a better way of doing things.

Currently there are two main types of electric motor technologies: permanent magnet (or synchronous) motors and induction motors (or asynchronous).

Permanent magnet motors have a heavy magnet as part of the motor set-up whereas induction motors use some electricity to create a magnetic field.

Most EV makers favour permanent magnet motors because they tend to be more efficient.

Some, including Tesla, use one of each on the same vehicle.

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