Researchers at Germany's renown RWTH Aachen University examined 115 electric motors from 80 electric vehicles. They found that drivetrains from China, Europe, and the USA differ little in their basic design but vary in materials and individual construction details.

For the study now published in the specialist journal Energies, the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University examined electric motors from vehicles from model years 2019 to 2025. As its title suggests, the study, titled Review and Benchmarking of Electric Motor Product Design and Manufacturing Technologies from the Chinese Market, focused on the Chinese market and was supplemented by comparative data on European and US drivetrains.

The researchers conclude that electric drivetrains from the three markets differ little in their fundamental architecture. This applies, among other things, to housing structures, rotor and stator geometries, and the cooling concepts of newer models. The most pronounced differences were found in materials and individual components.

For example, Chinese manufacturers increasingly use magnesium alloys for housings, while European manufacturers more frequently opt for aluminium. The study also identifies differences in power distribution busbars. Whereas Chinese manufacturers predominantly use powder-coated busbar solutions, European manufacturers tend to employ more complex assemblies in which multiple copper bars are embedded in a polymer component.

Across markets, the study shows a clear trend toward more compact and highly integrated drivetrain units. Since 2022, highly integrated concepts — where the motor, transmission and power electronics are more closely combined — have dominated the examined sample.

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