By PacketDriver·6 replies·588 views
I picked up a rolled car from an auto recycler last month without knowing what I was getting into. The car was a 2021 something (no badges, VIN plate damaged) and the motor in it is unlike anything I've seen in my limited experience.
Motor specs from what I can measure
What I've ruled out
It's not a Tesla (wrong form factor, Tesla motors are much more compact). Not a Nissan Leaf (those are DC for the older ones, and this is clearly AC). Not a Chevy Bolt (I have the Bolt specs — different mounting bolt pattern).
Why I want to identify it
If it's from a car with known inverter/controller hardware that I can source cheaply, this could be a great donor motor for my next conversion project. If it's something proprietary that requires an $8,000 OEM controller, it might be a parts recycler donation.
Sharing photos in the replies. Anyone with experience identifying motors by form factor and electrical specs — I'd love your help.
The dimensions and the integrated resolver are interesting. 290mm diameter, 340mm length puts this in the mid-size PMSM category — more powerful than a Leaf motor, comparable to a low-end Model 3 or Hyundai Ioniq motor. The "EM19" prefix sounds like it could be a Hyundai/Kia designator — they used "EM" prefixes in their 2018–2022 motors. Could be from a Kona Electric or a Niro EV. Can you photo the resolver connector pinout? That would help narrow it down significantly.
↩ replying to @EVengineer
Hyundai Kona 150kW motor is 285mm diameter × 355mm length — close but not exact to your numbers. The small discrepancy could be measurement technique on a crashed/bent housing. The EM prefix does point to Hyundai Mobis manufacture. Try reverse image searching your power connector against a Kona or Niro EV service manual image.
If it's a Hyundai Kona or Niro motor, you're in luck — those motors have been reverse-engineered by the Korean DIY community and there's a reasonable amount of CAN bus documentation floating around. The OEM inverter from a crashed Kona is a legitimate find — they're capable motors (150kW on the 64kWh version) and the inverter is well-integrated. Search "Kona EV motor conversion" on the EV conversion forums and you'll find people who've done it.
The orange 3-phase connector style might help ID it. Tesla uses a round connector. GM (Bolt, Volt) uses a flat rectangular multi-pin connector. Hyundai/Kia use a specific circular connector that I think matches your description. BMW i3 motors use yet another style. If you can post a clear photo of that power connector I might be able to narrow it down.
↩ replying to @KilowattKarl
The 50mm orange 3-phase connector you're describing is consistent with Hyundai's HV motor connector spec used across the Kona and Niro platforms. I've handled similar connectors on Korean EV drivetrains imported here. Post a clear photo of the 6-pin signal connector and I can likely narrow it down to a specific model year.
Also: pull the resolver connector and count pins carefully. 5-pin resolver (2 excitation, 2 sense, 1 ground) is most common in Japanese applications. 6-pin (adds a secondary winding for redundancy) is common in European and Korean high-safety-rating motors. This is a small data point but combined with the other specs might definitively point at an origin.
