What Drives the Demand for Faster Electric Vehicle Motors?

2025 has seen a slew of announcements for high-speed electric vehicle (EV) motors, with several exceeding 30,000rpm! What is behind this sudden need for speed? In this article, IDTechEx discusses the benefits, challenges, and solutions for taking this approach.

With IDTechEx’s latest report on Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2026-2036 predicting that over 140 million EV motors will be required in the year 2036, shifting technology trends could see new opportunities for motor manufacturers and their suppliers.

EV Motors Spin Faster

In an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, a higher maximum rpm has been associated with higher performance, allowing drivers to “rev” their engines out for longer before changing gear. As power is a function of rpm and torque, a higher-rpm engine can deliver higher power at those higher rpms.

In the EV market, the rpm range increased almost immediately. Whilst the average petrol car would max out at around 5000-6000rpm, the average EV motor is in the 10,000-15,000rpm range, and that range (through a Single Speed Transmission) can provide the full speed range of the vehicle without the need for multiple gears.

Why Would You Want to Go Faster?

For the same power output, EV motors are much more compact than a typical ICE, but this hasn’t stopped the EV market from trying to make its motors smaller and more power-dense to free up space and reduce costs. One route to this is to increase the motor’s top speed.

Tesla and Lucid released the Model S Plaid and Air, respectively, in 2021, both of which have motors with a max speed of around 20,000rpm. In 2025, several announcements of even higher-speed EV motors from players including BYD, Xiaomi, and GAC exceeded 30,000rpm.

This push to higher rpms has enabled more compact motors with higher power outputs. If the ultimate performance of a motor remains the same but the motor is smaller, the bill of materials is reduced, and the smaller motor allows more space in the vehicle for occupants or other drivetrain components.

IDTechEx’s database found that for radial-flux PM machines, increasing the max rpm from 10,000 to 20,000 increased power density by 69%, and further increasing it to 30,000 increased it by another 41%.