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Have We Gotten Electric Motors Wrong for 150 Years?

German Science Guy

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A motor that consumes less power, doesn't use any rare earth metals, and boasts an efficiency of almost 100%. Sounds almost too good to be true, right? Well, that's exactly what the American company C-Motive is now promising. And we're NOT talking about your standard electromagnetic motor—the kind that powers pretty much everything today. This is about an electrostatic motor. It seems to be breaking all previous records and is already being tested by the first few companies. How C-Motive pulled off this leap, and whether this motor actually has the potential to replace current technology—you'll find out in this video!

This video was created by my editorial team. Editorial staff: Vera Fleuter, Lukas Laroche, Jacob Beautemps; Editing: Romy Gruetter.

Chapters:
00:00 Electrostatic Motors
00:44 Intro
01:25 Electromagnetic vs. Electrostatic
04:27 The Problem with Electromagnetic Motors
05:34 The New C-Motive Motor
08:53 Benefits of the C-Motive Motor
09:35 Use Cases: Where and When?
10:12 The Big Hurdle
12:06 Final Thoughts

Sources:
Source 1: https://c-motive.com/technology/
Source 2: https://spectrum.ieee.org/electrostat...
Source 3: https://c-motive.com/2024/10/22/the-l...
Source 4: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collec...
Source 5: https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/el...
Source 6: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/sta...
Source 7: https://www.leifiphysik.de/elektrizit...
Source 8: C-Motive Explained: Plates
Source 9: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Source 10: https://www.kfw.de/PDF/Download-Cente...
Source 11: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/...
Source 12: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/...
Source 13 : https://link.springer.com/book/10.100...
Source 14: https://www.jpier.org/issues/reader.h...
Source 15: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/sta...
Source 16: https://technav.ieee.org/area/electri...
Source 17: https://c-motive.com/wp-content/uploa...
Source 18: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1...
Source 19: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/sta...
Source 20: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/...
Source 21:
https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/physi...
Source 22:
https://www.leifiphysik.de/elektrizit...
Source 23:
https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/physi...

New science and technology videos every week! We show innovations that make our world better and point the way to our future. The videos are made in Germany, but the topics are from all over the world.

20 Comments

@TehPwnerer 5 months ago

"Trusting is good but controlling is better" probably best translates as "trust but verify"
a saying you will come across quite frequently at least in tech industry

@Danji_Coppersmoke 5 months ago

I visited the CMotive site, and they have an efficiency PDF document. From that, their tested efficiency is around 88%. When cross-comparing the induction motor + gear and the permanent magnet motor, they compared them in a very weird way. They use the inductor's total loss as a 100% reference for cross-comparison with others, but do not mention the induction motor's nominal efficiency.
First, 88% is low efficiency. PMM can easily exceed 90%, and a single-stage reduction gearbox is usually 98% efficient.
Second, in comparison, if the PMM they use has lower efficiency then 88%, that is a pretty sucky motor.

@Milosz_Ostrow 5 months ago

(1:58) Narrator: "Left Hand Rule". Screen diagram: Shows drawing of right hand.

@LexK137 5 months ago

There are so many low-speed applications for motors, especially in "soft robotics" or anything that need to interact with humans. Door motors, mobility devices, elevators, escalators, etc.

Plus high-torque low-speed industrial applications like tractors, cranes, garbage truck mechanicals, and I'm guessing even many pumps and compressors could all benefit from high torque and low speed. I'd love it if a high-efficiency compressor motor for a heat pump could be designed to use very low speed motors so they don't whine like banshees.

@Hobypyrocom 5 months ago

0:21 it clearly states, "the highest torque and power measurements for any ROTATING ELECTROSTATIC MACHINE"...

@dekutree64 5 months ago

Everyone who dabbles in electricity should build a Wimshurst machine. And a Bonetti machine to go with it, which is several times more powerful so you can really feel the electrostatic forces (sort of like peeling velcro apart), but can be difficult to get started without the Wimshurst. It's especially interesting to dismantle the machine and pull the discs apart just after running it. The electric field blooms outward and can be felt quite strongly with your arm hair, which behaves like iron filings in a magnetic field :)

@HangarQueen 5 months ago

1:58 Whoops, describing the left-hand rule while the graphic is a right hand.

@krakhedd 5 months ago

Talking about electric motors, and in your intro you say, "....see if it has the potential to replace...." *And you didn't even crack a grin at your masterful punnery*!!!

@anullhandle 5 months ago

Over 99% is currently the record for large industrial motors. Still this could have application in overall system eff.

@mskellyrlv 5 months ago (edited)

I would use pressurized sulfur hexafluoride as the dielectric. It's a gas, so it wouldn't have the viscosity of a liquid, and it's already used as a dielectric hundreds of kilovolt Van de Graff generators, electron microscopes, and high voltage transformers. It doesn't, however, have a very high relative permittivity. That may not be too big a drawback. On balance, though, the static electric motor has a lot of potential, with the promise of increasing our capacity to use electric power in more applications, thus lowering resistance further electrification (see what I did there?).

@surkh 5 months ago

12:34 well, i do see electrostatic potential there

@BlackHoleForge 5 months ago

I appreciate you putting the numbers in the bottom for your sources. Sometimes the subject is so intriguing, that you want to go read the actual papers.

@seancooper5140 5 months ago

It sounds like they've made improvements that will allow electrostatics to potentially expand their range of usefulness.

That is cool. Electrostatic motors have a lot of potential (and a lot of roadblocks to materializing that potential).

I doubt they'll be replacing induction motors in general for a long time yet though.

@Erik_Swiger 5 months ago

I've spent my whole life trying to understand the intricacies of magnet electric motors. Now, I'm exicted to learn about a whole new field of motors.

@davidchavez81 5 months ago

Forgot to mention now you need a seal around a shaft for an extremely low viscosity likely flammable solvent

@micaelhildenborg5712 5 months ago

Using a fluid as a dielectric seems like it could loose a lot of energy from viscosity of the fluid... I wonder if that is the reason the rpm is limited to max 200.