Mercedes‑Benz starts large‑scale production of electric axial flux motor

The reaction was interested but unsentimental. People liked that this is not another lab demo or concept-car teaser. YASA has been shipping into exotic cars for years, and Mercedes buying it and then industrializing the process is the part that felt significant. The catch is that most people did not see this as the missing piece for EVs. Modern EV motors are already very efficient and relatively small, so shaving motor mass or volume helps, but it does not solve the big constraints. Battery cost, energy density, cooling, charging, and power electronics still matter more for mainstream vehicles. That is why several commenters read the announcement as a premium performance story first and a mass-market story later, if ever. Where the conversation landed was narrower and more useful than the hype. Axial flux looks genuinely valuable when packaging is tight and every kilogram or cubic centimeter matters. That makes sense in supercars, high-performance EVs, some robotics, and maybe future hybrid retrofits. It is less obviously transformative for family cars where the battery dominates weight and cost. People also pushed back on the common fantasy that small, powerful motors mean cars can ditch brakes or throw a motor directly in every wheel. Regen is limited by battery charge state, low-speed behavior, inverter limits, tire grip, and failure modes, and wheel-mounted motors still raise unsprung-mass and durability concerns. So the practical takeaway was that Mercedes is commercializing a real improvement in motor topology, but the hard work now is proving that its manufacturing process, cooling, and field reliability are good enough to move beyond expensive halo cars.