It seems that what Koenigsegg enjoys as much as making internal combustion powered teleportation devices in the shape of cars is creating neat new technology for those cars. The new hotness of the ghosts in Angelholm, Sweden is the Quark electric motor, David silicon carbide converter and Terrier EV drive unit. Engineering teams developed the Quark-e engine for the Gemera sedan, the four-door hypercar, and installed three to complement the three-cylinder, 600-hp internal combustion engine. The two main topologies or designs for electric motors are axial flux, which emphasizes power density, and radial flux, which emphasizes torque density. The Quark combines both topologies in a form Koenigsegg calls ‘Raxial flux’, made with cost-free materials such as aerospace-grade steel and a carbon fiber rotor.
The result is a 63-pound e-motor, about the height of two energy drink cans, that produces a steady 134 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. When spurred, max power jumps to 335 horsepower and 441 lb-ft for 20 seconds. The technical chief said the three e-motors in the Gemera should “amplify low-speed performance” “where you need it, for brutal acceleration”, after which the ICE takes over the lead for the ride to 400 kilometers per hour (248 km/h). km/h).
We will undoubtedly see more such innovations, and in fact we have already seen it. Two years ago, we interviewed the directors of the Texas-based company Linear Labs, which had made the Hunstable Electric Turbine. The HET is an e-motor that places a radial e-motor design between two axial e-motor ends. Creators Fred and Brad Hunstable had said that “[for] same size, same weight, same volume and same amount of input energy in the [HET]we will always – minimally, sometimes more, but minimally – produce two to three times the torque of any electric motor in the world, and at high efficiency across the entire torque and speed range.” Even better, for EV applications, the said the Hunstables that their engine could operate as a direct-drive unit, eliminating the need for a gearbox.
Koenigsegg hasn’t gone that far yet. Before the Quark, the Swedes developed a six-phase silicon carbide converter they called David. When two Quarks meet a David and a planetary gear, they combine to form one Terrier, an EV drive unit with all the torque vectoring any electrified hypercar needs. For its continuous 268 hp and 368 lb-ft and short-lived bursts of 770 hp and 882 lb-ft, the Terrier weighs just 187 pounds, the unit’s weight was limited in part by needing just the one six-phase converter for its two Quarks rather than needing two of the more traditional three-phase inverters. The automaker says the unit can be “elasto-bolted” to a carbon fiber monocoque, saving more weight in the chassis rather than mounting hardware or subframes.
Koenigsegg plans to make the Quark available for applications beyond EVs, including aerospace and marine applications, and perhaps a VTOL craft like the air taxis we’ve been waiting for since The Jetsons.
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