A motor with no permanent magnet, since 2011
Renault has sold cars with an electric motor that carries no permanent magnet, a magnet that needs no electric current to stay magnetic, since 2011, starting with the Kangoo Z e van. Most electric motors turn the rotor, the spinning part of the motor, using a fixed magnet built into it. Renault instead sends electric current from the stator, the ring of coils that stays still around the rotor, straight into the rotor itself, so the rotor makes its own magnetic field rather than carrying a fixed one. Renault calls this design an electrically excited synchronous motor, a motor whose rotor field comes from current rather than from a magnet.
We invented a magnet-free rotor winding process. The magnet has been replaced by copper, which has a much smaller impact on the environment.
Edouard Negre, electrical motor design leader, Renault Powertrain Design department. Source 3.
Renault put the first generation of this motor into the Zoe in 2012, and later into the Twingo Electric. The same underlying design has now shipped in 9 named Renault and Alpine models through 2025, including the Megane E Tech Electric, the Scenic E Tech Electric, the Alpine A290, the Renault 5 E Tech Electric, the Renault 4 E Tech Electric and the Alpine A390, unveiled in September 2025.
Power has climbed across 3 hardware generations
Peak power for this motor rose from 100 kilowatts in the first generation, sold from 2011 to 2020, to up to 160 kilowatts in the second generation, in production since 2021. A third generation, called E7A, targets 200 kilowatts, a size 30% smaller than the current motors and a carbon impact cut by 30%, for a start of production in 2027 at the Cleon plant.
The third generation figure, E7A, is a target for a motor still in development toward 2027, not a measured figure for a motor sold today.
Show the numbers
| First generation 2011 to 2020 | 100 |
| Second generation 2021 to 2025 | 160 |
| Third generation E7A, target 2027 | 200 |
Not every named vehicle carries the top figure for its generation. The Twingo Electric, the final upgrade of the first generation, ran at 60 kilowatts, and the Renault 5 E Tech Electric and Renault 4 E Tech Electric share a 110 kilowatt motor from the second generation.
These are individual named vehicles, not the generation ceiling shown in the chart above.
Show the numbers
| Zoe, first generation, 2012 | 100 |
| Twingo Electric, final first generation upgrade, 2020 | 60 |
| Renault 5 E Tech Electric and Renault 4 E Tech Electric, 2024 to 2025 | 110 |
What Renault says about efficiency
Renault estimates that the early production version of this motor, used in the Zoe, ran at 90% efficiency, the share of electricity a motor turns into motion rather than losing as heat, in a figure the company gave in 2021. The E7A motor targets around 92% efficiency, for a motor still years from its 2027 start of production. Both figures are numbers Renault gives for its own motor at 2 points in time, not a measured comparison against a motor that uses a permanent magnet. No source checked for this article states an efficiency figure for a permanent magnet motor tested on the same bench as this design.
A second carmaker, and the reason to try this
Charged EVs, a trade publication, confirms a second carmaker builds a motor of the same kind. BMW calls its version a wound field synchronous motor, and put it in the BMW iX M6 and the BMW i7 since 2022. A rotor built this way can run hotter than one with a permanent magnet without losing its magnetic field, because a permanent magnet starts losing strength above about 80 degrees Celsius, according to Charged EVs. The United States Department of Energy partnership U.S. DRIVE lists wound rotors as 1 of the alternate designs automakers and national laboratories are pursuing to cut reliance on rare earth materials, and sets a 2025 efficiency target above 97% for that category of motor generally, a target rather than a measured figure for any motor sold today.