Hot Tech at the Munich IAA Auto Show: Externally Excited Motors and Vanishing Screens

Germany’s Munich IAA international auto show has become six halls filled with CES/SAE-Show tech stuff with some automaker displays thrown in for good measure. Here’s a roundup of techie tidbits that didn’t quite fit into any of our other coverage but seemed too cool to ignore.

Valeo Magnet-Free iBEE Motor

Remember how BMW’s fifth-generation electric motor came along claiming to generate permanent-magnet motor power without the magnets by using an electromagnetic rotor? This is that same idea, but with a potentially better solution to the problem of how to energize that spinning electromagnet. BMW does it with brushes contacting a slip-ring, but said brushes can’t come into contact with any oil so they need to be housed in a sealed compartment, adding to the motor’s packaging length. They cause some friction and they wear, so they’ll eventually need replacement. Valeo teamed with supplier Mahle to develop an inductive system to transfer power to the electromagnetic rotor of its Inner Brushless Electrical Excitation (iBEE) motor.

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As with the BMW system, creating a sufficiently strong electromagnetic rotor force requires very few watts (just 25W at full power), so any losses across the tiny inductive charging gap are infinitesimal, but the huge benefit remains: Under conditions of high speed and low load (highway cruising), fast-spinning permanent magnets induce back-current (like regen braking), which is controlled by back-feeding the motor with a bit of negative “field-weakening” (and range-lowering) current. With an electromagnetic rotor, you simply depower it and the drag problem disappears.

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Aimed at higher-end vehicles, the initial design proposal supports power outputs of 295-469 hp, while 86-ing the magnets reportedly reduces the motor’s carbon footprint by 40 percent compared to a permanent-magnet e-motor of equivalent output. Valeo claims prototypes are operating and showing great promise, with extremely strong torque off the line (enough to potentially enable lower numerical gear-ratio direct DRIVE axles that can support higher top speeds) and great continuous-to-peak output ratios (268-hp continuous has been demonstrated).

In 2024 we covered a similar technology from ZF, dubbed in-rotor inductive-excited synchronous motor (I²SM), for which it was awarded a CLEPA Innovation Award by the European association of automotive suppliers, but to date no automaker contracts have been announced. Here’s hoping one of these brushless magnet-free motors finds its way to market soon.

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Samsung DRIVE “Shy” OLED Displays

How much screen do you need in your car at any given time? Are all screens beautiful enough to want to look at them all the time? Do some driving situations call for more screen info than others? Samsung’s new DRIVE line of displays aims to offer alternatives to today’s ever-present screens. (DRIVE stands for Design-differentiation, Robust reliability, Intelligent safety, Visual excellence, Expanded and extendable.) All employ organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, which creates its own light in the screen layer, as opposed to today’s liquid crystal display (LCD) tech, which typically requires mini light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in a separate layer behind the LCD.

For the driver, there' a 10.3-inch display on an incredibly thin (1-2mm max by the look of it), thanks to the single-layer OLED technology, and it provides plenty of full color info. But maybe you’re cruising with a lot of help from an autonomous system, and you only need the basic facts. The screen can lower into the dashboard leaving a 2-inch ribbon of data. Are you parked and charging? Want to just watch content on the center display? Lower the cluster completely.

14.4-Inch “Flexible L” Display

Super gently curving screens are finding their way into cars now, but Samsung makes phone screens that fold in half. Tapping that technology, the center console screen pictured at top demonstrates a waterfall look that smoothly transitions from the typical dashboard angle to horizontal.

Rollable OLED

In the back seat, folks may only watch videos programming on longer vacation DRIVEs, leaving the screen in the way and vulnerable to child-seat-inhabitant kicks or shifting cargo loads. Samsung’s rollable display technology allows this screen to disappear like the screens folks used to watch slide shows and home movies on. Of course, when it’s unrolled it looks a lot more vulnerable than a permanent rear-seat info screen. Of all these new Samsung DRIVE concepts, this one seems the most fragile and hence least likely to come to fruition. It’d sure be cool to be proven wrong though!