Electric Motors, Internal Combustion and Rotational Motion

These are some really old kitchen mixers. People buy them and restore them. Usually this means paint, maybe replacing a frayed cord. Vast majority of the time, the motor still works. You don't need to touch that part. The job is mostly cosmetic. Do you know why?

Because they are electric. It won't have rusted rings, or worn out valve seats, dried out gaskets or a clogged carburetor. Electric motors have two parts, one of which moves. The stator and the rotor. You apply current, a magnetic field is created, and the shaft spins. They make instant power, lots of it, reach incredible RPM, and can operate for decades without any maintenance. Literally perfect for turning something, unlike reciprocating motion of pistons, powered by flammable liquids catching on fire. 

As such, there's no carbon building up, no filters to clog and replace. No oil to get dirty and break down by being in contact with a 3,600F flame front, and no metal-on-metal contact, prevented only by a thin film of lubricant, which goes away with gravity every time you park, shaving some life off the engine at every start-up. 

Imagine for a second if your DeWalt impact driver was powered by a tiny RC car nitro motor. That would be funny, but terrible in practice. No torque, and it wouldn't run well at certain angles. It would be loud, toxic, and annoying.

Cars are one area we haven't yet switched to electric motors. However, it is happening as you read this. It is revelatory how much simpler and better electric motors are at creating rotational motion, once you start daily driving an EV. 

So, if they are so good, why didn't we do it earlier? Simple. We didn't have batteries that were good enough, and you can't drive with an extension cord. Everything that was stationary and required rotational motion has switched to electric a century ago. Factory equipment, conveyor belts, pumps, lathes, mills, mixers, name it. It's cheaper to run, and more reliable compared to steam or diesel. 

For decades, power tools like drills and saws, had a cord. I'm old enough to remember this. Then cordless tools swept every plug-in version into the trash. Once batteries got good enough, it was the beginning of the end. There were some holdouts during the early NiCad 9v days, but once the 18v/20v/40v stuff hit the market, it was 100% over. Literally nobody complains about their Milwaukee, Makita or even Ryobi. I love mine and use them constantly. They replaced air tools too, with some rare exceptions, in every shop around the world. I have two compressors, and never touch either one. Even my nail guns are now electric!

About 12 years ago, some companies developed batteries that can move a 2 ton vehicle 300-400 miles. Way more than an average person drives in a day, which is only 40 in the US on average. More importantly this is possible at cost parity with their gas equivalents, or in some cases even cheaper. You can lease a Model 3 for $350 per month. This is Nissan Sentra territory, and understandably Nissan is quite worried. Let's be honest about it - in the next few years, certain manufacturers are only going to stay in business due to people's ignorance. I suppose you can make that argument about some of them now.

In short, despite the superiority of electric motors for turning gears at any size or application, cars had to skip the 'corded phase' for reasons that should be obvious. This period is over, and we are now in the 'cordless' phase.