Design of Synchronous Reluctance Motor for Electric Two-Wheeler Application

In this work, a synchronous reluctance motor is designed for electric two-wheeler applications, with the goal of moving towards motors that do not use rare-earth magnets. The motor is developed using a systematic design process to meet the required performance targets. Key design steps include choosing the right number of poles and slots and optimizing the rotor shape. The final motor uses a six-pole, 36-slot layout with a four-barrier rotor and achieves a power output of 5 kW at 3500 RPM, which is suitable for two-wheeler use. After the initial design, a free-shape optimization is carried out using Altair-Flux software. This reduces the rotor volume by 20% in 10 steps without lowering the motor’s performance. The results show that synchronous reluctance motors can be a good alternative to permanent magnet motors for electric vehicles.