**1. Introduction**

In electric vehicles (EVs), the component responsible for providing mechanical torque is the motor. The main requirements for EV motors are high peak power, power density, compact‐ ness, high torque over a wide speed range, fast torque response, energy efficiency, reliabili‐ ty, robustness, fault tolerance, low maintenance and low cost [1].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Various motors have been considered for EV applications [2]: DC machines, induction machines (IMs), permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) and switched reluctance machines (SRMs). DC machines are not used any more due to the high maintenance required and the lack of reliability associated to the commutator and the brushes. IMs, commonly used in industrial applications, are a robust option with more reliability and better efficiency than DC machines. However, they present a clear disadvantage which is the heat produced by the losses in the rotor, difficult to extract, requiring a special cooling system and reducing the overload capacity of the motor. PMSMs, and particularly Interior PMSMs (IPMSMs), are the most popular choice for EVs [3, 4]. These motors have higher efficiency, compactness, highpower density, fast dynamics and high torque-to-inertia ratio. However, they show some drawbacks due to the presence of rare earth permanent magnets. The price and the availability of rare earth material are considered a potential problem for EVs massive development [5]. Besides, PMSMs are more sensitive to high temperatures, and they suffer from risk of demag‐ netization.

Switched reluctance drives (SRDs) are getting increased attention recently, including in the EV industry [6]. SRMs have been well known for many years due to its simple operation principle. Relatively, advances in static switches and digital control devices have fostered its applications in many different fields, even replacing other types of electrical machines.
