UK’s Equipmake brings electric bus powertrain to South America

The Hethel-based firm will be supplying its new EBus drivetrain which features the company’s APM200 spoke architecture electric motor, claimed to be the world’s most power/torque dense electric motor. The APM200, which also powers the upcoming Ariel HIPERCAR, will be paired with Semikron SKAI inverters, alongside lithium-ion battery technology.

“Each bus system has two APM200s and they’re mounted on a bespoke two-speed gearbox, which is part of the drivetrain system we’re supplying,” Ian Foley, Equipmake MD, told The Engineer.

“The spoke architecture [gives] a better use of magnetic flux, you get a higher torque density. In addition to that, we’ve also developed a system to directly cool the system with water because a limiting factor on the power density is the magnets getting too hot. A combination of those two things have enabled us to get the size and weight down.”