How Bugatti's New Electric Motor Bends Physics

Bugatti recently announced the new Tourbillon, a hyper car that will surely set many records over the next year. However, most of the attention has been on the V16 engine that is under the hood - but people don't seem to be giving enough attention to the incredible electric motor and battery that are at the heart of it all. In this video we will see what innovations have taken place to allow such a powerful electric power train to fit inside this car.

Some Sources:

Credits:
Producer & Presenter: Ryan Hughes
Research: Sian Buckley and Ryan Hughes
Video Editing: Ryan Hughes
Music: Ryan Hughes

#engineering #motor #breakthrough

[ZirothTech]

Some great comments here adding to the video, here is a summary:
1) Correction at 2:34 - This is not an exponential growth it is a curve with an exponent of 2 (quadratic) - I loosely and inaccurately used the phrase here!
2) The paper at 8:00 uses Celsius to report a percentage drop, which isn't very useful as it's a relative term.
3) I compared RPM as all the motors have similar geometry (automotive size) - but really this forgets the importance of the radius (which needs to be large enough to get some torque from the motor)

[royh]

Nowhere do you explain the "bend physics" statement. Tesla uses carbon fiber wound rotors and presumably so does Bugatti. Liquid cooling of batteries is likewise not new. The only part was the magnetic path which seems to be different from each company, and an area of great concern as each company strives for the optimum configuration. Still how does this "bend physics"?

[alecapristrudel]

"26% lower temperature, 54 vs 40 degrees C."
Me: ~Screams thermodynamically~

[irinaratushinskaja]

Two (semantic-ish) points: It's not exponential if it goes by the square. And saying "temperature is 23 percent lower/higher" is basically absurd as it's scale-variant.

[mvez]

Thanks to all the comments for saving me 9 min, i was here for the physics portion of this video. glad to save some time.

[BitJunkie]

Energy density is NOT how fast a battery can discharge, that's C value. Energy density is the ratio of energy to volume

[umountable]

The force is going up quadratic and not exponential. Thats a HUGE difference :D

[markotrieste]

A tip: instead of comparing RPM, compare peripheral speed. Speed to material strength ratio is constant wrt size, while RPM have an inverse relation to size (for the same material strength).

[fintux]

4.1 C to 1.0 C is not 76% reduction. They are degrees, not absolute temperatures. You can only use them for delta temperatures that way, say the coolant is 0 C, then yea you can say delta-T dropped 76%. But 0 C is not the absolute zero. Easy check: convert the units to Fahrenheit and do the same math. The drop would be from 39.38 F to 33.8 F, thus 5.58 F drop which would be 14.2% reduction. If changing units yields different results, then the math is wrong - like is in this case.

An easier "reality check": if temperature went from +1 C to -1 C, how much would the percentage drop be? 200%? It's not possible, you cannot lose 200% of temperature.

Nice video nevertheless, just wanted to address this (relatively common) error.

[johanfolkesson]

1: Quadratic, not exponential.
2: That gives 44% increased force, which does not round to 50%.
3: In relation to what? I didn’t find any mention of the rotor diameter, or any other meaningful comparison.

[ironman]

Feels like a clickbait, where is the physics bending?

[brunonikodemski]

We did fluid cooling of electrical drives back in the early 70's, using the absolutely best Types available, which were various PCBs. We did railroad engines, and had a ten-ton military 6-wheel truck as a test vehicle. Did ships drives, and wind turbines. However, the PCBs were found to be carcinogenic, had to be removed, and the alternate fluids, typically antifreezes or light silicones, had all sorts of secondary problems, and were highly inefficient. These projects were dropped by us, but the computer industry, and the heat-pipe industries started to use these techniques with volatiles, and these worked quite well. Change-of-state cooling is also very effective.

[jumphigher-runfaster]

Novec are not non-toxic and are phased out. On March 31 2025 there will be no way to order them from the manufacturer. It's due to being PFAS based and regulations aimed to reduce health risks.

[beforebefore]

4:07 - 100, 000 RPM isn't special, unless the diameter is stated. Small motors regularly hit 100k, but convert that to an 8" diameter rotor and it becomes unrealistic.

[powerbuoy]

They probably have a large ultra capacitor pack to reduce the impact on the battery and allow for rapid discharge.

[atrumluminarium]

2:34 small correction: quadratically not exponentially (i.e. v² not eᵛ)

[titastotas]

The pedantic- the motor does not bend physics, the physics bends it.

[diamondsolo]

Koenigsegg did that but with 250kw output a year ago. Less weight, higher performance.

[weshoward]

If you want real physics bending technology look no further than Koenigsegg's "Dark Matter" electric motor that makes 800hp and 922 lb ft tq (1250nm) all while weighing under 40kg (88lbs)

[JohnDlugosz]

2:51 No, that's polynomial growth, *not* exponential! Exponential growth is another league entirely, and you're simply wrong to say that its in this higher league.

The term "increases exponentially" refers to a specific type of growth where the rate of increase is proportional to the value of the parameter. That is, _x_ is in the exponent position. Here, we have _x²_, where a constant 2 is in the exponent position.