Magna International announced in February that it is growing its electrification customer base with a newly awarded contract from a North America-based OEM to supply a “specialized” primary rear eDrive system for one of the company’s high-end niche vehicle platforms.

The variant of Magna’s 800-V eDS Duo boasts outputs of 726 kW and 8000 N·m (5900 lb·ft) from an integration of two e-motors, two inverters, and two gearboxes into a single package. Magna will be responsible for the design of the gearbox and housing, cooling system, and integration of the e-motors and inverters to ensure reliability, efficiency, and continuous power levels.

“This award reflects our expertise in electric powertrain system engineering and integration, as well as our collaborative approach with a highly valued customer to deliver cutting-edge solutions,” said Diba Ilunga, President of Magna Powertrain.

Magna unveiled its next-generation 800-V eDrive in January at CES 2024. The “drop-in solution” incorporates several advanced technologies resulting in significant reductions in weight and size, enhanced performance, extended driving range, and sustainability.

The system also achieves up to 93% efficiency in real-world driving (including WLTC and highway), which significantly improves efficiency across a range of vehicle speeds, making it more versatile. It offers enhanced flexibility due to its lightweight, 75-kg (165-lb) design and 20% reduction in height from the company’s prior-generation eDrive. A key technology and supplier-industry-first advancement is the ability to rotate the eDrive 90 degrees around the drive axis, which allows improved system integration in the front and rear vehicle space.

“Through seamless integration of our systems, we have successfully reduced our reliance on aluminum and heavy rare earth materials, resulting in a significant reduction of CO₂ emissions during production by approximately 20% compared to previous generation eDrives,” said Ilunga.

Magna’s next-generation eDrive can be applied as a primary or secondary drive solution with an optional eDecoupling unit for vehicles in the C-, D-, and E-segments. It delivers peak outputs of 250 kW and 5000 N·m (3690 lb·ft).

 

Inside the next generation’s development

Futurride caught up with top Magna execs at CES to find out more about the next-generation eDrive.

“The new technology is in the test and evaluation phase, and the steps forward we have made with the fourth generation are already remarkable,” Jörg Grotendorst, SVP for Corporate R&D at Magna International. “We have a completely new and intelligent internal cooling system that keeps a magnet temperature pretty low so that we can significantly reduce heavy rare earth magnetic materials. This is of course a part of how we contribute to sustainability.” Another is making sure “we need less raw materials and have better efficiency with less material.”

We dug a little deeper into the technology with Mike Dowsett, Chief Engineer for eDrive Systems at Magna International, who described the next generation as an “evolution of every aspect” of the previous third-generation technology.

“It’s still a three-in-one; it’s still got a motor, inverter, and gearbox,” he said. “But that’s where the similarity’s end. We have evolved every single part.”

On a weight basis, power density is improved by 60%, and torque density is improved by 50%.

The new motor, a completely different hairpin design, and inverter are the result of Magna’s joint-venture collaboration with LG Electronics called LG Magna e-Powertrain. The hairpin synchronous motor is an IPM (internal permanent magnet) so called because the magnets are pressed inside the rotor.

 

Flexibility and magnet cooling

Flexibility is an important part of the complete unit’s engineering.

The rear orientation shown at CES can be rotated around the drive axis so OEMs can use the same drive in the front and rear. Using the same three-in-one, front and rear, means they don’t have to validate two systems.

“That may sound insignificant, but it’s probably $50-60 million of validation saving,” said Dowsett. “So, a real big bonus for the OEM.”

The key to it all is having an active fluid control pump on the bottom, and when rotated it stays there.

“That sounds simple, but unless you put this in at the very first step of the evolution, you can’t retrofit it,” he said.

That electric oil pump has some clever valve control to enable better operation across a range from high-speed, low-torque to low-speed, high-torque scenarios.

As Dowsett explained, cooling needs for high-speed, low-torque applications are not so challenging, with lots of airflow and low demand on the electronic components. At the other end, for low-speed, high-torque situations with a fully laden vehicle and/or towing, “the magnets get hot quickly, said Dowsett. “We can change the direction of the cooling flow [and] now cool the magnets. That’s a first. I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and I’ve never been able to cool magnets.”

While oil has been pumped through the rotor shaft for a while, what’s different is that the shaft now has a polygon shape that creates small channels right next to the magnets. Oil can be pumped through these spaces to extract heat from the magnets, which means Magna can eliminate and/or reduce rare earth metals used to protect against heat primarily.

“We’ve eliminated terbium, which is a heavy rare earth, one of those nasty chemical products,” said Dowsett. “And we’ve reduced the dysprosium from 1.1% to 0.5%. So, a massive step forward on eliminating heavy rare earth in this generation, mainly because of this active fluid control.”

 

From 400 to 800 V

The new system gets a bump from the previous generation’s 400 V to 800 V, a level at which Dowsett believes the whole industry will migrate very soon. He’s not too keen on higher levels such as the 900 V adopted by Lucid. As he explains, the 400 and the 800 numbers come from industry standards.

“Today, in our 400-V systems, the components are spec’d to 600 V,” he explained. “In our 800-V system, the components are spec’d to 1200 V. Both are to handle “overshoots” or spikes in the system. So, the further you go to 900 V, you are eliminating the protection, comfort, warranty, and durability. I hope we stay at 800 V.”

Another eDrive advancement is its “high voltage embedding” of silicon carbide chips directly in the PCB (printed circuit board). This enabled Magna to eliminate a module, and with that all its “big heavy interfaces and bond wires.”

“In doing that, it means we can easily cool it from one side, and it’s improved the switching losses,” said Dowsett. “I think we’re the first to do this, certainly at 800 V. So, the efficiency, which equal range, is better with this.”

 

One or more speed transmissions

Although Magna engineers are long-time transmission and transfer case driveline experts, the big change from internal combustion engines to electric drives is the instantaneous torque, something they are learning more about to update and fine-tune simulation models.

They were still able to make significant strides in gearbox efficiency to extend range, going from the previous generation’s 91% overall efficiency to the new generation’s 93%—a huge step, according to Dowsett.

The gearbox displayed at CES was a typical EV one-speed unit. Some notable recent EV applications—like Porsche’s Taycan—have been two-speed units.

The use of multiple speeds is driven by the vehicle duty cycle, according to Dowsett. For instance, if an application requires high speed and high torque.

“We have a two-speed design for one of our customers that needs exactly that,” he said. “They want a vehicle that will do 130 mph, but will also have 15,000 N·m of torque and maybe tows a trailer.”

 

The specialized eDrive system will be manufactured at Magna’s facility in Ramos, Mexico, with serial production scheduled to start in the next few years.