Patent ID: 8138699

Claim:
An electric vehicle propulsion system comprising: a disk motor having at least one rotor disk having a peripheral edge and a plurality of permanent magnets distributed along a plurality of essentially circular substantially concentric paths, said paths being located inwardly of said peripheral edge; and a stator assembly positioned in facing relation to said rotor disk, said stator assembly having a mounting plate with a peripheral edge, a plurality of pole pieces distributed on said mounting plate along a plurality of essentially circular substantially concentric paths located inwardly of said peripheral edge of said mounting plate, and a plurality of coils each arranged about a corresponding one of said plurality of pole pieces, said plurality of coils being grouped into a plurality of phase groups; and a power control circuit for supplying commutated power control signals to said coils in a manner determined by at least one current vehicle condition, said power control circuit including a source of electrical power; a vehicle condition parameter source for manifesting an electrical signal representative of a vehicle condition parameter; a controller having an input for receiving said electrical signal and a plurality of outputs for manifesting inverter control signals generated in response to the value of said electrical signal; and a plurality of inverters each having an input coupled to a different one of said controller outputs and a plurality of outputs for generating commutated power control signals for individual ones of said plurality of coils of said stator assemblies, each said inverter having an associated set of stator coils and each one of said inverter outputs being coupled to a different one of said plurality of phase groups of said associated set of stator coils so that individual sets of stator coils can be selectively activated to optimize power drain from said source of electrical power in accordance with the value of said electrical signal.