Okay, I have here the two electric motors out of a 2004 through 2009 Toyota Prius that make up the
transaxle and I've just got a demonstration of magnetic field strength for these electric motors
the two motors are motor-generator number one right here which starts the engine and
acts as an alternator and then we have motor generator-number two over here which propels
the vehicle and then we have a planetary gear set that connects the two together along with
a clutch looking disc that connects the engine to the planet carrier of that electric motor
pack here so these two electric motors are inside the transaxle these are permanent magnet electric
motors and have some very strong magnets inside of them and then the stator coils that these
motors go inside of produce an electromagnetic field that pulls the motor around our motors
around to propel the vehicle well I have another Toyota hybrid transaxle apart right here with the
same motor-generator number two right here motor generator number one over here a clutch damping
disc up front the hooks to the engine and then two planetary gear sets the power split device
planetary gear set which is the same as what we have over here in the Prius transaxle but then
we also have a motor speed reduction gear set down inside here that allows this motor to have
additional torque but it also lets it spin much higher at much higher speeds up to 14,000 RPM but
the thing i wanted to show you is both of these transaxle motor packs are made of very or have
very strong magnets inside of them so watch the electric motors on this Prius transaxle as I bring
the electric motors from the Highlander transaxle in proximity you can see just by moving it over
the magnetic field caused the Prius electric motor just to move just a little bit and that's
because that's evidence of the force of attraction and repulsion from the permanent magnets that are
in this MG2 attracting or repelling the permanent magnets in that MG2 but more interesting here
to show the strength of the magnetic field I've got a pretty good gap in between there
probably three inches or so watch what happens as I rotate the Toyota Highlander Hybrid P310
transaxle MG2 watch what happens to the Prius MG2 so I'm not touching the Prius motor at all
but yet the force of the magnetic field from the Highlander mMG2 causes the Prius MG2 to
spin and if I go the opposite direction then it also spins in the opposite direction so obviously
this isn't some sort of technical diagnostic but it's evidence of a very strong magnetic field that
allows us to use what are called synchronous AC motors some people call them brushless DC motors
but these are very powerful electric motors used in hybrid and electric vehicles also