A Colorado Firm Claims It Can Triple the Power of Electric Engines

interestingengineering.com

2 pointsFervicus4 comments

Without going beyond the tagline, my BS meter is pegged.

Electric motors are already better than 90 percent efficient. There is no theoretical room to "triple" the power unless it creates energy and qualifies as a perpetual motion machine.

Thanks for saving me a few words.

The article eventually admits that kW/kg is being 3X improved. While rather aspirational, that at least requires no handwavium-plated perpetual motion machines.

Whether their 3X improvement is measured relative to fairly state-of-art motors...vs. some more-weight-is-great motors from a large freight locomotive...um, well, it doesn't say. In any case, the maximum energy density offered by batteries - vs. aviation fuel - rules out "like regular airplanes, but..." skies full of electrical pies.

So in other words, they are increasing the power/weight ratio --- they are not "tripling the power" but rather they are primarily decreasing the weight of the motor.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com