When designing the Tesla Model S, Elon Musk wanted an electric motor that had the same horsepower as the most powerful internal combustion engine but with nearly-instantaneous torque. And he wanted it to be the size of a watermelon. Engine manufacturers told him this couldn’t be done. So the Tesla CEO decided to build his own motor. The earlier versions of this had a hand-wound stator which increased winding density to help eliminate resistance and increase peak torque. Later versions of the stators were built by robots.
Image: Credit: Tesla Motors
To read the original article: Tesla will have a $35K car that can go 1,000 miles on a single charge by 2020 | VentureBeat | Green | by Vivek Wadhwa