One example of a company that is seizing opportunities in the growth of the EV market is Japan-based Nidec Corporation. Now some 45 years old, the company has been in the business of making electric motors since it started and was already established in the automotive sector as a supplier of electric power steering motors when it began to move into the traction motor market with its own E-Axle product over the last two years. Its first such product to integrate motor, inverter and reduction gearbox was a 150kW unit announced in April last year. It was followed in April this year by 100kW and 70kW units that allow the company to claim that it can now provide appropriate traction units for cars in the A, B and C segments as well as dual motor four-wheel-drive D segment vehicles.

Details of the company’s existing product range and its future development plans are provided by Dr Kazuya Hayafune, chief engineer and deputy executive general manager of Nidec’s Automotive Division. “One model is currently being mass-produced – a slightly modified version of the initial 150kW model,” he confirms. Meanwhile the company is waiting for orders for the 100kW and 70kW variants, and also for a 110kW model with a more compact design achieved through a different gear configuration. “With this line-up we have 90-95% of the market covered,” he states.

Hayafune also confirms that though American subsidiary Nidec Motor Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, manufactures switched reluctance motors for commercial vehicles, all the models in the E-Axle line-up use rare earth magnets.