Investigating the Impact of Material Cost Fluctuations on the Total Manufacturing Cost of EV Traction Machines

Abstract

Given a generic product, which satisfies customer requirements, cost competitiveness is generally what makes it appealing and successful on the market. Such an aspect, whilst being evident and well known, seems to be often overlooked when designing or proposing ‘novel’ or ‘exotic’ electrical machine designs. Indeed, very often, designers strive for the best power density, without giving proper consideration to cost-sustainability and mass-manufacturability. This paper investigates how material cost fluctuations can affect the total manufacturing cost of three different machine topologies, for an automotive traction use-case. It is demonstrated that the cost of permanent magnet-based motors is essentially driven by (and tied to) rare-earth magnets. This indicates that, in the current market and geopolitical scenario, only rare-earth-free machine topologies can offer a fair cost sustainability perspective.