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Application of Direct-Drive Wheel Motor for Fuel Cell Electric and Hybrid
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Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications · October 2006

DOI: 10.1109/TIA.2006.880886 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 42, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Application of Direct-Drive Wheel Motor for Fuel
Cell Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicle
Propulsion System
Khwaja M. Rahman, Member, IEEE, Nitin R. Patel, Member, IEEE, Terence G. Ward,
James M. Nagashima, Member, IEEE, Federico Caricchi, Member, IEEE, and Fabio Crescimbini, Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents a gearless wheel motor drive
system specifically designed for fuel cell electric and hybrid elec-
tric vehicle propulsion application. The system includes a liquid-
cooled axial flux permanent-magnet machine designed to meet
the direct-drive requirements. The machine design implements
techniques to increase the machine inductance in order to improve
machine constant power range and high-speed efficiency. The im-
plemented technique reduces machine spin loss to further improve
efficiency. The machine design also optimizes the placement of
magnets in the rotor to reduce cogging and ripple torque. An
original cooling system arrangement based on the use of high ther-
mal conductivity epoxy joining machine stator and liquid-cooled
aluminum casing allows the very effective removal of machine
power loss. Design details and experimental results are presented.
Index Terms—Axial flux, component, direct drive, wheel motor.
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE ELECTRIC traction system is an important com-
ponent of fuel cell electric and hybrid electric vehicle
propulsion systems. Generally, in most propulsion applications,
an ac machine is connected to the wheels by reduction gears and
mechanical differential. In some vehicle drive arrangements,
high-speed low-torque wheel motors requiring gear reduction
are used, and in these cases, either a gear motor assembly is
mounted inside the wheel or a chassis-mounted motor is con-
nected to the wheel through gear reduction. Further simplifica-
tion of the vehicle drive arrangement results in the elimination
of the gear being interposed between motor and wheel, and
this calls for the use of wheel motors being designed for high-
Paper IPCSD-06-029, presented at the 2004 Industry Applications Society
Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, October 3–7, and approved for publication
in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Elec-
tric Machines Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. Man-
uscript submitted for review November 1, 2004 and released for publication
June 1, 2006.
K. M. Rahman is with General Motors Hybrid Power Train Engineering,
Troy, MI 48083 USA (e-mail: khwaja.rahman@gm.com).
N. R. Patel, T. G. Ward, and J. M. Nagashima are with the Advanced Tech-
nology Center, General Motors, Torrance, CA 90505 USA (e-mail: nitinkumar.
patel@gm.com; james.nagashima@gm.com).
F. Caricchi is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Univer-
sity of Rome “La Sapienza,” 00184 Rome, Italy (e-mail: Fred@elettrica.
ing.uniroma1.it).
F. Crescimbini is with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engi-
neering, University of Rome “Tre,” 00146 Rome, Italy (e-mail: crescimbini@
ieee.org).
Color versions of Figs. 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 10–13 are available online at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2006.880886
0093-9994/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
1185
torque low-speed application. In this regard, this paper presents
a gearless wheel motor drive system.
Gearless wheel motor drive systems for fuel cell electric or
hybrid vehicles have advantages over the classical construction
with one central machine. Mounting the motors directly to the
wheels simplifies the mechanical layout. The gearless wheel
motor drive system will reduce the drive line components, thus
improving the overall reliability and efficiency. This option will
also reduce the drive line weight since mechanical differential
and gear reduction are not used. However, due to the elimina-
tion of gears, the machine needs to produce the total torque
directly into the wheel shaft. Hence, the size and the weight
of the machine tend to grow. Therefore, the major challenge
in a gearless system is to keep the size and the weight of
the machine low for direct in-wheel mounting. Unsprung mass
should be carefully evaluated when designing wheel motors.
There should be a tradeoff between the size, power, and weight
of the machine.
Compared to conventional designs, the axial flux permanent-
magnet (AFPM) machine has favorable characteristics con-
cerning efficiency and specific torque. For this reason, it is
especially suited for direct-drive applications [1]–[5]. This pa-
per presents a wheel direct-drive system with an axial flux ma-
chine targeted for fuel cell electric and hybrid electric vehicle
propulsion systems. The axial flux machine in this system is
directly coupled with the wheel without gear reduction. The
machine has been designed, built, and tested in the dyno and
also in a mule vehicle. This paper presents the design of a
gearless wheel motor drive system and the dyno test data to
validate the drive system performance.
II. R EVIEW OF AFPM M ACHINES
Flux in an axial flux machine flows axial to the direction
of rotation. The AFPM machine is basically equivalent to
the conventional radial flux surface-mount permanent-magnet
(SMPM) machine geometry. Therefore, they suffer from the
well-known low-inductance problem. However, this problem
can be substantially mitigated as discussed in the following.
High torque density and good efficiency of the AFPM machines
have been verified theoretically [6]. It has been shown that an
improvement of two times the density of an induction machine
is possible even with ferrite magnets. The gain in density can
exceed three times if high-energy magnets are used. The AFPM
machine has favorable geometry for in-wheel mounting and
1186 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 42, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Fig. 1. (a) Cross-sectional view of an AFPM machine. (b) Finite-element flux
contour plot of a Torus-type N–N geometry.
good overall performance for gearless direct-drive applications.
All of these characteristics are very important for wheel direct-
drive applications. The proposed design techniques of this
paper further improve the performance of this machine for the
gearless wheel motor propulsion system.
The high torque density in AFPM machines is best achieved
by designing the machine with large machine diameter and
high machine number of poles. These machines have disks
for the rotor and stator geometries. One stator disk may be
sandwiched between two rotor disks, called the Torus geometry.
While one rotor disk may be sandwiched between two stator
disks, called the Kaman geometry. The Torus-type geometry is
favored as it utilizes copper (for torque production) from both
surfaces of the stator, as opposed to the Kaman geometry that
utilizes copper only from one surface. As a result, in the Torus
geometry, the end windings have reduced length compared
to the Kaman geometry, and this substantially improves the
machine efficiency.
In a Torus geometry, the stator may be slotted or nonslotted.
Windings are inserted in the slotted geometry and wound in
toroidal fashion for the nonslotted geometry. Fig. 1(a) shows
the basic Torus-type slotted axial flux geometry. In Fig. 1(a), the
rotor back iron has been removed from one of the rotor disks to
have a better visualization. This geometry has two rotor disks
with several magnets mounted on the disk and one stator disk
sandwiched by the two rotor disks. In a Torus geometry, the
magnet in the two opposite rotor disks may be placed on N–N
or N–S arrangements, depending on whether the winding has
a cored or coreless arrangement. Fig. 1(b) shows the flux plot
of a Torus-type geometry with N–N rotor magnet placement.
Core losses in a cored geometry mostly happen in this stator
core, therefore, it needs to be laminated, while the rotor back
iron only carries the dc flux, hence can be a solid ferromagnetic
disk. In a slotted geometry, cogging and ripple torque will be
present due to the slotting effect. A nonslotted core is therefore
sometimes preferred to eliminate cogging and ripple torque.
However, a nonslotted geometry increases the eddy loss in the
winding.
The coreless axial flux machine is sometimes used for several
apparent advantages [7]. The coreless geometry eliminates the
core loss and the cogging torque. The machine torque density is
very high due to the very light weight of the coreless geometry.
However, the coreless geometry also poses challenges mostly
due to the use of a winding being placed in the air gap and
directly exposed to the magnet flux. As a consequence, the
coreless geometry is characterized by extremely low machine
inductance and thereby hardly has any constant power range.
To overcome this problem, the machine inverter needs to be
oversized. The coreless geometry, although does not have any
core loss, may have significant copper loss due to the eddy-
induced current in the winding. A coreless machine designed
for high-speed operation may, therefore, require a Litz wire to
overcome this problem. Either cored or coreless topologies used
in AFPM are strong candidates for direct-drive applications.
III. E LECTROMAGNETIC D ESIGN OF THE W HEEL M OTOR
For the wheel motor development discussed throughout this
paper, the cored-type Torus N–N geometry shown in Fig. 1(a)
and (b) was selected. In addition to the requirements of high
torque density and high efficiency for direct-drive wheel ap-
plication, the vehicle propulsion also requires low cogging and
good constant power range. These issues were addressed during
the development of the axial flux machine for wheel direct-drive
application.
Due to the slotting of the cored design, cogging in the
machine can be high. To reduce cogging in the machine, the
magnets in the rotor are divided into two groups of p magnets
in each group, where p is the number of pole pairs. The pitch of
each magnet is then reduced by 2π/pz, where z is the number
of stator slots [8]. This is illustrated in Fig. 2. The effect of the
magnet short pitching on cogging torque is quite significant as
illustrated in a later section.
The cored axial flux design has better constant power range
compared to the coreless design; however, the range is still
not long enough due to the low value of the phase inductance.
Moreover, due to this low inductance, the d-axis current injec-
tion at high speed, needed for field-weakening operation, can
be high, resulting in low efficiency. The above technique of
magnet short pitching lowers the cogging torque by averaging
the slotting effect. However, the slotting effect still exists, which
increases the no-load spin loss of the machine due to the eddy
RAHMAN et al.: WHEEL MOTOR FOR ELECTRIC AND HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROPULSION SYSTEM
Fig. 2. Short-pitched magnet placement in the wheel motor.
Fig. 3. Machine slot with magnetic wedge.
current induced by the magnet flux. To alleviate all of these
problems, magnetic wedges have been added in the stator slot.
This is illustrated in Fig. 3.
The selected magnetic wedge has permeability, which is
much higher than air. However, this permeability is much
lower than the lamination steel used in the stator. This choice
of magnetic wedge minimizes the leakage (short-circuit) flux
into the magnetic wedges but is still sufficient to improve the
machine inductance. The selected material has low permeabil-
ity compared to lamination steel and does not saturate, thus
providing a path for leakage flux (to improve inductance) at
all torque levels. The improvement of the machine inductance
improves the high-speed constant power range and the high-
speed efficiency. Another benefit of having magnetic wedges
is to improve the machine back EMF, thus improving torque
without increasing the magnet content or increasing cost. This
improvement in machine back EMF is achieved by improve-
1187
Fig. 4. Three-phase line-to-line back EMF of the developed wheel motor.
ment of the permeability of the magnetic circuit, due to the
addition of the magnetic wedges, to the magnet flux. The
introduction of the magnetic wedges also reduces the slotting
effect, which is a major source of no-load spin loss. As a
consequence, spin loss is also reduced significantly. For our
prototype machine, we selected a soft magnetic composite for
the magnetic wedge material such as SMC 500 by Höganas,
Sweden. Selection of a soft magnetic composite minimizes
eddy loss in the material. The hysteresis loss would be present;
however, for the machine frequency range, this loss would be
low, and no significant wedge heating is expected.
The effect of the short pitching of the magnets and the
addition of magnetic wedges in the stator slot is quite obvious in
the back EMF waveform of the developed machine. Typically,
slotting introduces harmonics in the back EMF. The measured
back EMF of the machine, as shown in Fig. 4, is nearly
sinusoidal, showing a very low harmonic content. As a conse-
quence, the developed machine has a very low cogging torque
and torque ripple. The other conventional way of reducing the
cogging torque is to skew the magnet. However, this approach
also reduces the machine torque. The above implemented
method of the developed machine does not compromise ma-
chine torque.
Since the machine is mounted directly into the wheel, the
mass of the machine is quite critical. In order to reduce the
unsprung mass, unwanted masses have been eliminated both
from the machine active part and from other machine me-
chanical parts. One area in the machine active geometry from
which mass would be eliminated without affecting the machine
performance is shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 5(a) is a simplified edge
view, and Fig. 5(b) is a simplified plan view of a portion of the
rotor disk of Fig. 2. Fig. 5(a) shows the simulated magnet flux in
the rotor back iron. As illustrated in the figure, the magnet flux
in the rotor back iron is minimum near the magnet center and in-
creases gradually toward the magnet edges. Accordingly, some
masses have been scooped out as shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b)
1188 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 42, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Fig. 5. (a) Flux in the rotor back iron showing the area of low flux concen-
tration. (b) Area of low flux concentration removed from the back iron to
reduce mass.
without significantly hurting the machine torque performance.
More masses have been taken out from the region at the center
of the magnet, as it is the lowest flux area. Gradually, less and
less masses are taken out as moved toward the magnet edges.
IV. C OOLING S YSTEM
Low-speed high-torque wheel motors must meet tight re-
quirements in terms of overload capability, and this severely
constrains the motor design. Furthermore, mounting the motor
within the wheel is desirable but imposes restrictions on the
machine diameter and demands totally enclosed construction
to provide protection against the environment. Hence, a very
effective cooling of the machine is needed to achieve the all
required performance. In this respect, PM machines have the
great advantage over induction machines that significant power
loss occurs only in the machine stator, and this somewhat
simplifies heat removal. For the wheel motor development
herewith discussed, an original cooling system arrangement
has been conceived and patented. A liquid-cooled aluminum
ring is used together with a high thermal conductivity epoxy
in order to remove heat directly from the end windings at the
outer diameter of the machine stator. The particular cooling
ring epoxy assembly handles the reaction torque in the motor
by transmitting it to the motor mounting structure.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows simplified plan views of the stator
winding and the cooling arrangement. Fig. 6(a) shows the cool-
ing rings when the aluminum cooling fins are separate from the
stator core and the winding, while Fig. 6(b) shows when they
are assembled. The stator has an annular core with poles (teeth)
and coils interspersed between poles. Coils are wound from a
flat ribbon and therefore possess significant lateral strength, that
is, the ability to withstand significant circumferentially directed
forces. The annular-shaped stator support has a hollow interior
through which the coolant circulates. Inwardly extending from
the stator support are tooth-like protrusions shaped and spaced
so as to fit intimately between coils and in close proximity
to the core of the stator, as can be seen in Fig. 6(b). This
arrangement provides for low thermal impedance so that heat
may be readily extracted from coils of the stator as well as
Fig. 6. Winding cooling arrangement. (a) Stator and cooling ring separate.
(b) Stator and cooling ring engaged.
from the poles (stator teeth), as shown by arrows in Fig. 6(b).
The stator cooling ring is attached to the stator by a thermally
conductive epoxy, insertion molded thermally conductive plas-
tic, or equivalent material placed between protrusions, winding
coils, and stator teeth. This assures intimate thermal contact
between cooling ring and stator. The cooling ring also reacts
to the circumferentially directed forces created by the motor
by means of, for example, a circumferential attachment plate
shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b), by which the motor is coupled to the
vehicle frame.
V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
This machine is designed for direct in-wheel mounting,
which will fit within a 17- to 18-in wheel. Fig. 7 shows the
application of direct-drive motors to GM’s S10 mule vehicle to
demonstrate the performance. Some design data of the machine
are presented in Table I.
To investigate the performance of the developed wheel mo-
tor, it is necessary to accurately characterize the machine. The
machine characteristic data are used to develop an accurate
machine model that includes the effect of magnetic nonlinearity
and cross-coupling effects. In that regard, the method presented
in [9] has been used. The important machine parameters are
the d-axis and q-axis flux linkages as a function of both axis
currents. Fig. 8(b) and (c) shows the measured respective flux
linkages of the developed AFPM machine calculated using the
method presented in [9]. Fig. 8(a) verifies the accuracy of the
RAHMAN et al.: WHEEL MOTOR FOR ELECTRIC AND HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROPULSION SYSTEM 1189

Fig. 7. Developed wheel motor installed on S10 mule vehicle to demonstrate

the performance.

TABLE I
MACHINE DATA

calculated flux linkages of Fig. 8(b) and (c), where the flux
linkages are used to calculate the torque and later compared
with the measured torque.
Once the machine model is developed using the machine
characteristic data in Fig. 8, the machine model is used to cal-
culate the machine optimal control parameters. Fig. 9 shows the
search algorithm for calculating the optimal control parameters.
Fig. 10 shows the optimal control parameters of the devel-
oped wheel motor calculated using the method described in Fig. 8. Machine characteristic data as a function of control angle and phase
Fig. 9. Fig. 10(a) shows the q-axis optimal control parameters, current. (a) Measured and calculated (using the flux linkage data) torque.
(b) Measured (calculated from measured voltage and current) d-axis flux
and Fig. 10(b) shows the d-axis optimal control parameters. The linkages. (c) Measured q-axis flux linkages.
d-axis control parameters are zero at low speed since no field
weakening is needed at low speed. measured torque speed profile of the developed wheel mo-
Once the optimal control parameters are calculated, they are tor controlled using the optimal control parameters calculated
added in the controller as lookup tables. Fig. 11 shows the above. As seen in the figure for a bus voltage of 250 V, the
1190 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 42, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Fig. 9. Calculation of the optimal control parameters.
Fig. 10. (a) q-axis and (b) d-axis optimal control parameters. Vdc = 250 V.
Fig. 11. Power–speed profile of the developed wheel motor.
Fig. 12. Comparison of no-load loss in wheel motor with and without mag-
netic wedges in the stator slot.
machine is maintaining constant power from 600 r/min to the
machine maximum speed of 1200 r/min. The AFPM machine,
in principle, is a surface PM machine. It suffers from low
machine inductance. As a result, the field weakening range is
rather limited (for poor phase advancing performance). The
inclusion of magnetic wedge in the slot has increased the
machine phase inductance, which is evidenced by the long
constant power range of the machine.
Fig. 12 shows the spin loss of the developed wheel motor
and compares that with the spin loss of another AFPM machine
having similar back EMF but with no magnetic wedges in
the slot. A magnetic wedge in the slot significantly reduces
RAHMAN et al.: WHEEL MOTOR FOR ELECTRIC AND HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROPULSION SYSTEM
Fig. 13. System efficiency of direct-drive wheel motor (a) with and
(b) without magnetic wedges. DC-bus voltage of 250 V.
the slotting effect between the stator slot and the rotor. This
reduces air gap flux harmonics. It is clear that the machine with
magnetic wedges has significantly less spin loss compared to
the machine without magnetic wedges.
The low spin loss and the necessity of lower field weakening
current at high speed (higher inductance) improve the efficiency
of the machine with magnetic wedges. This is illustrated in
Fig. 13 by comparing the measured system efficiency of two
machines of Fig. 12.
Fig. 13(a) shows the measured system efficiency for a ma-
chine with magnetic wedges, while Fig. 13(b) shows the system
efficiency of a machine without magnetic wedges. It is clear
from the figure that the machine with magnetic wedges is ex-
hibiting superior efficiency than the machine without magnetic
wedges. The maximum efficiency of the machine with magnetic
wedges is about 3% better than the machine without wedges.
More importantly, in the medium-speed to high-speed low-
1191
torque points where the vehicle is operating most of the time,
the machine with magnetic wedges has significantly higher
efficiency than the machine without wedges.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper presents the design and performance data of
an AFPM machine for the direct-drive propulsion system of
fuel cell electric and hybrid electric vehicle. The machine
has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of
low cogging torque and long constant power field weaken-
ing region. The presented test results show excellent cogging
performance as evidenced by the nearly sinusoidal back EMF
with little slotting effects. A constant power range of two
times or more has been achieved by adding magnetic wedges
in the stator slots. Magnetic wedges have also reduced the
core loss and thus improved the machine efficiency espe-
cially during high-speed operation. Special attention is given
to minimize the mass of the machine active parts and thereby
reduce the wheel motor unsprung mass. Additionally, an ef-
fective cooling system has been conceived and patented to
improve the machine thermal performance. The engineering
S10 mule vehicle has been driven over 1000 miles on test
drives by automotive news reporters during GM’s technology
tours around the world. The wheel motors installed on the
S10 mule have demonstrated excellent performance during the
test drives.
The measured performances of the wheel motor drive dis-
cussed throughout this paper met or exceed the design specifi-
cations set forth by the system requirements, thus confirming
that AFPM machines should be regarded as strong candidates
for direct-drive automotive applications.
R EFERENCES
[1] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, and A. Di Napoli, “Prototype of electric vehicle
drive with twin water-cooled wheel direct drive motors,” in Proc. IEEE
PESC, 1996, pp. 23–26.
[2] ——, “Prototype of innovative wheel direct water-cooled axial-flux PM
motor for electric vehicle application,” in Proc. IEEE APEC, 1996,
pp. 764–770.
[3] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, O. Honorati, A. Di Napoli, and E. Santini,
“Compact wheel direct drive for EVs,” IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol. 2, no. 6,
pp. 25–32, Nov./Dec. 1996.
[4] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, F. Mezzetti, and E. Santini, “Multistage axial-
flux PM machine for wheel direct drive,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 32,
no. 4, pp. 882–888, Jul./Aug. 1996.
[5] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, E. Fedeli, and G. Noioa, “Design
and construction of a wheel-directly-coupled axial-flux PM motor
prototype for EVs,” in Proc. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1994,
pp. 254–261.
[6] S. Huang, J. Luo, F. Leornardi, and T. Lipo, “A comparison of power
density for axial flux machines based on general purpose sizing equations,”
IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 185–192, Jun. 1999.
[7] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, O. Honorati, G. Bianco, and E. Santini, “Per-
formance of coreless-winding axial-flux permanent-magnet generator with
power output at 400 Hz, 3000 r/min,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 34, no. 6,
pp. 1263–1269, Nov./Dec. 1998.
[8] F. Caricchi, F. Capponi, F. Crescimbini, and L. Solero, “Experimental study
on reducing clogging torque and core power loss in axial-flux permanent-
magnet machines with slotted winding,” in Proc. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting,
2002, pp. 1295–1302.
[9] K. Rahman and S. Hiti, “Identification of the machine parameters of syn-
chronous motor,” in Proc. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT,
2003, pp. 409–415.
1192 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 42, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
Khwaja M. Rahman (S’93–M’99) received the
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Bangladesh University
of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, in
1987 and 1990, respectively, and the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from Texas A&M University, College Sta-
tion, in 1992 and 1998, respectively, all in electrical
engineering.
From 1987 to 1990, he was a Lecturer with the
Electrical Engineering Department, BUET. In 1998,
he joined the Advanced Technology Center, General
Motors, Torrance, CA, as a Research Engineer. He is
currently a Technical Specialist with the General Motors Hybrid Power Train
Division, Troy, MI, where his responsibilities include the design of electric
machines and control of electric drives for hybrid electric vehicle propulsion
systems. He is also a coinventor of several U.S. patents in these areas.
Dr. Rahman was the recipient of the First Prize Paper Award from the IEEE
Industry Applications Society.
Nitin R. Patel (S’96–M’97) was born in Gujarat,
India. He received the B.S. degree in instrumentation
and control from the University of Poona, Maharash-
tra, India, in 1991, the M.S. degree in electrical engi-
neering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
in 1996, and the M.S. degree in mechanical engi-
neering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
in 2004.
He was with Dover Elevator as a Research Engi-
neer. In 1997, he joined the Advanced Technology
Center, General Motors, Torrance, CA, where he is
currently a Control Engineer involved in the development of ac drives control
for propulsion systems for FCEV/HEV application. He has authored several
publications in IEEE conferences. He holds 13 U.S. patents with 11 pending.
His research interests include fuzzy logic and neural network applications to
power electronics, drives, and sensorless machine control.
Mr. Patel is an active member of the IEEE Industry Applications Society
Industrial Drives Committee. He was awarded the 2003 General Motors Vice
President’s Award (Charles L. McCuen award) for his contribution to wheel
hub motor technology.
Terence G. Ward received the B.S.M.E. degree
from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the
M.S.M.E. degree from the University of Southern
California, Los Angeles.
He has 21 years of engineering experience in
aerospace and automotive power electronic packag-
ing and electric motor design. He is currently a Staff
Engineer with the Advanced Technology Center,
General Motors, Torrance, CA.
Mr. Ward is a recipient of the Hughes Aircraft
Company Fellowship. He is a Registered Profes-
sional Engineer in the State of California.
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James M. Nagashima (M’98) was born in Chicago,
IL, in 1946. He received the B.S. degree in electrical
engineering and the M.B.A. degree from California
State University, Long Beach, in 1969 and 1983,
respectively.
He is currently a Manager with the Advanced
Technology Center, General Motors, Torrance, CA,
where he is responsible for developing new power
electronics, motor drives, and controls for GM’s
electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles. His past work
includes the GM EV-1 electric vehicle, autonomy
fuel-cell concept vehicle, Precept 90 mpg concept demonstrator for PNGV,
and the recently announced Sequel fuel-cell concept vehicle. He holds 16
patents in the field of power electronics and electric machines. He has published
several papers on advanced motor drives and electronics. He represents General
Motors on several academic and government committees. His interests include
automotive power electronics, electric machine design, and advanced motor
controls.
Mr. Nagashima is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. He was
awarded two GM innovation awards in 2003 and 2004 for his work on electric
wheel hub motors and hybrid permanent-magnet machines.
Federico Caricchi (M’90) received the electrical
engineering and Ph.D. degrees from the University
of Rome “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy, in 1988 and
1994, respectively.
Since 1991, he has been with the Department
of Electrical Engineering, University of Rome “La
Sapienza,” where he is currently a Full Professor.
His research interests include analysis and design of
unconventional electric machines, power electronic
equipment, and permanent-magnet motor drives.
Prof. Caricchi is a member of the Italian Associ-
ation of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Italian Association for Naval
Techniques, and the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
Fabio Crescimbini (M’90) received the degree in
electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Rome “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy, in
1982 and 1987, respectively.
From 1989 to 1998, he was the Director of the
Electrical Machines and Drives Laboratory, Depart-
ment of Electrical Engineering, University of Rome
“La Sapienza.” In 1998, he joined the Department of
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University
Roma Tre, Rome, Italy, where he is currently a
Full Professor of electrical machines and drives. His
research interests include the design of newly conceived permanent-magnet
machine drives and power converter topologies for emerging applications such
as electric and hybrid vehicles and renewable energy generating systems.
Prof. Crescimbini is an active member of the IEEE Industry Applications
Society (IAS), the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and the IEEE Vehicular
Technology Society. From 2001 to 2005, he was a member of the IEEE IAS
Executive Board.