Yamaha's electric monster

Maestros of internal combustion turn their attention to building tech for the next generation of electric hypercars

- CAMERON KIRBY

THE CREATORS OF ARGUABLY some of the greatest combustion engines ever made have begun building new electric motors that pack one hell of a punch.

Yamaha has a long history of building engines for car manufacturers – outside of its motorcycle business – with its first being the twin-cam inline-six-cylinder that was fitted to the Toyota 2000GT in 1967.

For those needing more reason to be excited, Yamaha’s resume also includes Toyota’s iconic 4A-GE 1.6, muscular 2UR-GSE V8, and legendary 1LR-GUE V10 and the company recently announced it has developed an electric motor specifically for performance vehicles and hypercars. While Yamaha will continue to produce internal combustion engines, it has begun to transition into the world of EVs.

Its first foray came last year with a series of units producing between 35kW-200kW. However, this year the Japanese manufacturer has stepped things up, building a stonking 350kW prototype unit which will be made available to car manufacturers to utilize in future performance products.

While the 350kW figure alone is impressive, Yamaha has stated that the unit is designed to be used multiple times in a single-vehicle for ultra-powerful fully electric hypercars applications. A press image showed four of the units (one on each wheel) placed on an EV platform for a total system power output of 1400kW. Yikes!

The same attributes that make for great combustion engines translate directly to electric motors – namely big power, small size, and low weight.