YASA takes Award to Industry 2023

This year’s Award to Industry 2023 was highly contested, following some extremely worthy nominations from across the Livery. Thank you to all who put forward suggestions.

However, there could only be one winner, and following a debate by the Livery Committee, the Master selected YASA for its development of a high-power axial flux motor. This best met the criteria of a product that exhibits excellence in design, technical development, innovation and commercial significance.

Just about all electric vehicles on the road today rely on radial flux electric motors, a legacy technology that is more than 50 years old. YASA is at the forefront of e-motor innovation and development producing technology that’s up to four times more powerful than radial flux motors today, whilst being around 50 per cent smaller and lighter. Originally spun-out from the University of Oxford by founder and CTO Dr Tim Woolmer, YASA features in some of the best e-motor applications across multiple sectors and can be found within hybrid powertrains for vehicles such as the Ferrari SF90. Now a core part of Mercedes-Benz’s transition to electrification, YASA is accelerating the development of its axial flux technology for the next generation of battery electric vehicles.

Dr Tim Woolmer accepted the trophy at the Award to Industry Dinner and delighted guests with a speech setting out his and YASA’s journey to create the axial flux motor. A few weeks into his PhD, Tim had a eureka moment – realising there was a much better way to build an electric machine called a torus axial flux motor. The insight Tim had was that by removing the motor’s stator yoke and splitting it into segments, he would be able to deliver some very significant reductions in the motor’s weight – while at the same time improving its torque, power density, efficiency and manufacturability, making it transformative within the then-nascent electrification industry.

On completing his PhD in 2009, Tim founded YASA to develop and commercialise his new approach to the axial flux motor. As CTO, Tim leads the development of YASA’s technology to exhibit best-in-class efficiency and power densities for automotive and aerospace electric powertrain applications.

It is hoped that the Coachmakers will be able to visit YASA at its motor and controller serial production facility in Kidlington near Oxford later this year, so look out for further details on the Events pages.

Details about YASA’s work can be found here: https://www.yasa.com