Based on the characteristics of electric vehicles, there are also high requirements for the motors used. In order to improve the speed per hour, the motor shall have higher instantaneous power and power density (W/kg); In order to increase the driving distance of one charge, the motor shall have high efficiency; Moreover, the electric vehicle works at variable speeds, so the motor should have a high comprehensive efficiency at high and low speeds; In addition, it has strong overload capacity, large starting torque and fast torque response. The speed of electric vehicle is low when starting and climbing, but the torque required is large; The torque required for normal operation is small and the speed is high. Constant torque characteristic at low speed and constant power characteristic at high speed, and the operating speed range of motor should be wide. In addition, the motor shall be solid, reliable, dust-proof and waterproof, and the cost shall not be too high.

At present, from the perspective of the mature motor technology, switched reluctance motor seems to be more suitable for the use of electric vehicles in various technical characteristics, but it has not been popularized. Permanent magnet synchronous motors are widely used, such as Kia K5 Hybrid, Roewe E50, Denza, BAIC EU260, etc. Tesla Model X and Model S adopt asynchronous motor. In addition, it can also be divided into DC motor and AC motor according to current type. Through the following table, we can roughly understand the characteristics of four more typical motors.

In the early development of electric vehicles, most electric vehicles used DC electric motors as driving motors. This kind of motor technology is relatively mature, with the characteristics of easy control mode and excellent speed regulation, and has been widely used in the field of speed regulating motor. However, due to the complex mechanical structure of DC motor, its instantaneous overload capacity and further improvement of motor speed are limited. In addition, in the case of long-time operation, the mechanical structure of the motor will produce losses and increase maintenance costs. In addition, when the motor is running, sparks from the brush will heat the rotor, which will cause high-frequency electromagnetic interference and affect the performance of other electrical appliances of the vehicle. Because DC motor has the above shortcomings, the current electric vehicles have basically eliminated DC motor.