Japanese manufacturer Nidec Corporation has announced that its in-wheel motor has been adopted for use in an electric motorcycle released by China-based Yadea. As China’s largest manufacturer of two-wheel vehicles, Yadea has more than 50 million users in more than 80 countries around the world.
Its latest model, which features a battery that can be replaced at charging stations, will use Nidec’s 48V, 2.8kW in-wheel motor, which is said to have best-in-class torque characteristics, with the low-speed torque 18% and the high-speed torque 5% better than other companies’ motors of the same category.
Developed by the company’s Small Precision Motor & Solutions Business Unit, which makes hard disk drive (HDD) spindle motors (a product for which Nidec has the largest global market share), the motor utilizes Nidec’s single-micron-scale magnetic circuit design technology, initially developed for compact and fast-rotating HDDs.