With its long history of involvement in the development of electric vehicles, Nidec Leroy-Somer designs and manufactures innovative, high-performance drive mechanisms.
The experience of a specialist of international stature
In the past, the company has participated in the launch of the Peugeot 106 Electric, which had a D.C. motor and separate excitation. This technology offered the advantage of maximum motor torque at very low speeds. It was the largest-ever experiment in Europe to develop a fleet of self-service electric vehicles. This was a real large-scale test for both manufacturers and equipment fitters.
Since then, Nidec Leroy-Somer has been actively involved in the development of a number of customised projects, including design studies, prototypes, pre-production and mass production, and has a multi-skilled centre of excellence dedicated to electric vehicles.
Mastery of technologies and their areas of application
In drive mechanisms for battery voltages between 24 and 450 V, several technologies are used such as asynchronous motors with frequency inverters, or more recently permanent magnet synchronous motors. These permanent magnet technologies offer new prospects in terms of efficiency, performance, compactness and noise levels.
There is enormous scope for the use of electric motors in vehicles:
- Traction for light vehicles and quadricycles, heavy quadricycles, tricycles, utility vehicles
- Traction for cars and hybrid vehicles
- Refrigeration in lorries
- Air conditioning in buses
- Electrification of boats, etc
