Aussie invention could turn petrol cars into hybrids

RMIT University Sustainable Systems Engineering and Industrial Design student Alexander Burton has been named the national winner of this year’s James Dyson Award for his invention ‘REVR’, an electric vehicle retrofit that fits easily onto a car wheel, to convert a petrol vehicle to electric. There are 20 million gasoline cars in Australia; while electric vehicles are becoming a more viable option for people, the associated infrastructure is limited and people are still choosing to purchase petrol cars.

Current electric retrofit approaches are complex and hard to scale, which has prevented this concept from taking off. REVR is engineered with a custom design motor, designed to mount securely between the wheel and the disc brake of the vehicle. It quickly and easily converts the car to electric, while leaving the existing systems in the car fully operational. This offers the benefits of retaining the existing engine and achieving a fully hybridised system.

Burton said winning the James Dyson Award gave him a huge confidence boost and motivation to accelerate this project. “I hope REVR can make clean cheap transport an option for everyday people and help us get to net zero sooner,” Burton said.

The two most common motors are radial motors and axial flux motors. Radial motors are the most common types of motor found in electric cars and are composed of a shaft inside of a cylinder that rotates, generating angular momentum. The flux is generated perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Axial flux motors are flat and round, usually made up of discs that spin next to each other. The flux is generated parallel to the axis of rotation. Axial flux motors provide more torque than radial motors but are traditionally harder to make.

REVR (Rapid Electric Vehicle Retrofit) uses an axial flux motor, where the spinning part (rotor) of the motor is placed between the disc brakes that exist in nearly all vehicles. The stationary part of the motor (stator) fixes to existing mounting points on the brake hub. As the disc brake is designed to resist high rotating force, it is suitable for mounting a motor. The battery pack is installed in the spare wheel well of the vehicle, while a simple sensor detects the position of the accelerator pedal for acceleration and braking.

JDA judge Dr Anita Vandyke said the judges were impressed with the ‘can-do’ attitude of the winner and his willingness to try something new. “The project has got great potential and we look forward to seeing it being developed further!” Vandyke said.

The 2019 bushfires that ravaged Australia inspired Burton to develop REVR; witnessing the impact of climate change firsthand prompted him to think about a solution that could cut emissions from petrol vehicles, while also integrating quickly and easily into pre-existing infrastructure. REVR aims to encompass two themes that Burton believes are vital to combating the climate crisis: speed of innovation and reusing what we have. ‘Rapid’ and ‘Retrofit’ embody these principles by applying innovations in clean electric vehicle technologies. Winning the James Dyson Award will inject $8,800 into Burton’s project.

JDA judge John McGarva said REVR met the James Dyson Award brief of solving a very real problem through iterative development and innovative thinking. “REVR is a very innovative idea to convert internal combustion engine cars into hybrid electrical vehicles. One of the key challenges is to fit an axial flux motor into the space between the wheel hub and the disc brake. Alexander has done a brilliant job in packaging the motor into such a tight space and has built virtual and physical prototypes to understand the design space and performance limitations,” McGarva said.

Image credit: Dyson