Highlands team achieves major prototype milestones

Prototyping a world class electric motor is not a trivial process. It takes patience, incredible problem solving skills and dedication to bring a product to fruition. Highlands embarked on this process 2.5 years ago with a small team to design the best EV drivetrain in the world. In July 2017, test results have confirmed that Highlands has achieved that goal.

In June of this year, Highlands successfully completed the assembly of the very first S-ONE motor, out of 5 prototypes to be built. The very first prototype, Motor One, confirmed that all parts assembled properly and the assembly fixtures were constructed correctly. Motor One was able to spin and produced useful electrical and final assembly data, all of which met or exceeded expectations. The Highlands team is very proud of how well Motor One performed as very few prototyping projects can produce a semi-functional product on their very first attempt.

With improvements made using the experience gained with Motor One, Highlands’ team has already assembled Motor Two and performed a series of tests: cogging torque, motor inductance, power and torque. Results matched perfectly with the simulation data and has confirmed years’ worth of Highlands research and design. With extremely low cogging torque and industry leading torque density, the S-ONE truly is the best electric motor for the EV market.

Highlands' team has now turned all their attention to Motor Three. It will again take advantage of the learnings from Motor Two to further improve its performance characteristics. Like all future motors, Motor Three will be tuned and tested and given to partners for in-vehicle testing.

Both our German and U.S. teams worked tirelessly to create such a groundbreaking architecture. Their accomplishments have put Highlands at the forefront of motor design and will help bring about the mass adoption of EVs across the world.

Performance data of Motor Two are available upon request.