Electric Motor Details

The stuff I bolded is irrelevant to me. It played no role in the purchase of my Prius and my previous 2 cars. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head the last two. I'd have to check the manual. Also, for those cars, there were no other choices available for # of cylinders and displacement. There was a whopping 1 engine available for each.

I can't see the air filter and oil filter a car/engine takes having much or even any influence on the car I buy/when cross-shopping.

Since the OP seems to care, I took a few pics of the PSD in 09. See Picasa Web Albums - cwerdna - Prius Connect....

 

MG1 for Gen2 (left) and Gen3:


MG2 for Gen2 (left) and Gen3:


Power Split Device for Gen2 (left) and Gen3 (includes MG2 speed reduction unit):


Entire hybrid transaxle Gen2 (left) and Gen3:

 

Motors, like engines, can be tuned for different performance and efficiency tradeoffs so there is no single simple answer. The motor(s) used in the Prius Liftback and PiP seem to work very well. They are wound with wire (as shown in the photos posted earlier).



The Volt motors (shown above) are also permanent magnet AC. The large primary motor is 111kW (149HP) and 273 lb -ft. (370 N·m) and the smaller is 55kW (74HP). The Volt motor is "bar wound" using rectangular wire which they claim makes for denser windings, lower resistance (thermal emissions), and easier cooling. Similar motors are sold by Remy which used to be a division of GM.

The hybrid transmission that contains the motors was originally built in Japan but I've seen labeling that suggests it is now built in Mexico and GM plans to begin making their motors at a plant in Baltimore that made their 2-mode transmissions.

Here are the slides from a GM presentation at an SAE meeting in 2010 comparing wire vs. bar wound motor design for hybrid and EV cars:

http://www.sae.org/events/pfl/presentations/2010/keynote-savagian.pdf

 

USB, those are very cool photos. Just wondering, why the change in color from copper to white in the MG1?

 

I think white is the cover. Not sure why MG2 is not covered. Perhaps because MG1 reaches higher speed (max 10,000 rpm).

 

This describes the improvements from Gen1 to Gen2. It has some details on the design of the electric motor.

 

OP, you might find the video at Towing revisited: Weber State | PriusChat interesting. You might also find the previous hybrid/Prius related videos done by them interesting.