Motor life expectancy

[Richard230]

Everyone talks about battery life, and for good reason, but my guess is that AC motors are pretty expensive too.  So my question is what sort of life might you expect from a high-performance AC motor, like the Empulse will use?  What could go wrong? I imagine that the motor bearings might be the only things that would wear out. Spinning 8000 rpm would seem to result in some wear on the ball bearings that support the motor shaft, especially if they are just packed with grease and not serviceable.  Anyone have any experience or thoughts about expected motor life?  Just curious.   

And wanting to take a break from discussing batteries.   

[Car Loss]

Short circuiting ('frying").  You can't run power through tinier and tinier spaces, and expect everything will last forever, for every unit delivered.  In the case of electric power, that's the insulation blowing in some coil.  How often/how long until it happens?  Depends on quality controls in the plant, and safety margins on the drawing board/screen.  In the case of the Prius, there's also the engine computer trying to prevent certain harsh operating conditions.

There are no brushes, so those won't wear out.  But for a major application like this, a motor with brushes would have some means of disassembly and replacement.

Carlos

[werm_works]

My enertia motor was replaced 3 days ago because of a bad temp sender, so idk

I'm just glad its under warranty and I hope if it happens again even if its already out of warranty that they would back up their bike

[Car Loss]

My enertia motor was replaced 3 days ago because of a bad temp sender, so idk

Hmmm, don't know if temperature monitoring is necessary for an EV motor... maybe it's less necessary for the lower-powered Enertia than an Empulse or similar (hence the air vs. liquid cooling).  Either way, most sensors (specifically temp sensors) aren't considered wear items.  I'd guess that someone did a bad soldering or wiring job, and a connection severed somehow.

[CliC]

I'd expect it to last a good while, as it has only one moving part, no brushes, etc. If it's totally-enclosed (i.e., liquid-cooled), that should help even more. The fact that the motor on my Zero is air-cooled and somewhat open to the elements is the only thing I think would shorten its life.

On the other hand, its appearance allows me to almost get away with telling people I pirated it from my washing machine

[protomech]

The PM0913 is available online for about $800. Zero's modified variant may be rather more expensive.

Temperature sensors aren't wear items, but they do fail from time to time.

[EmpulseRider]

Funny how the sensors that are supposed to keep things from going wrong tend to go wrong themselves. I had a 2003 BMW 325i where the following sensors went bad:

Oil Level Sensor
O2 Sensor
2 x Brake Pad Sensor
External Temp Sensor

Along with some other electrical issues...

All before 80k miles... Domestic for me from now on, because if parts go bad, they are much cheaper to replace. Had issues in the past with a Lexus too... Now days, I keep it simple and drive a Chevy

Empulse is another story... As an early adopter, I am hoping it will be reliable.