Most EV progress gets discussed in terms of batteries, but a new claim out of China is about the motor instead. Ben Alexxander walks through reports of an axial flux motor rated at 25.73 kilowatts of power per kilogram, a figure he describes as far beyond what production EV motors manage today. The video attributes the design to Pangood Power and the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, citing Chinese auto-industry reporting, and says the motor is claimed to exceed 18,000 RPM. Power density is the headline because it touches everything buyers care about: a lighter, more compact motor means less weight to move, which can translate into more range, better efficiency, or a smaller battery for the same range. The host is careful to frame it as a claim, not a shipping product.
To see why the number stands out, it helps to know the baseline. The video says most production EV motors operate in the range of roughly 4 to 8 kilowatts per kilogram, so a 25.73 figure would be a large jump rather than an increment. Axial flux motors, shaped more like a flat disc than the cylindrical radial motors in most cars today, are not new to high performance. The video notes that companies such as Ferrari have used axial flux units from supplier Yasa, that McLaren has been reported as a customer, and that Mercedes acquired Yasa and is moving axial flux motors toward production in future AMG models, including a new four-door GT. The host adds that axial flux designs tend to run cooler and waste less energy, which is part of their appeal. The persistent challenge has been scaling the technology cheaply and reliably, with thermal management, durability, and manufacturing complexity the usual obstacles. The Chinese team claims to have addressed some of these through new magnetic materials and cooling, and that is the real test here, the one the video keeps in view.
The host spends much of the video on what the technology means rather than the spec alone. He argues the biggest payoff is weight: every kilogram saved on the motor is a kilogram that does not need battery to haul, which compounds across a vehicle and, at scale, across millions of vehicles. He frames Tesla as the company that should pay attention, recounting Tesla's own efficiency work, including giga casting that he says removed roughly 14 kilograms from the back of a car, carbon-fiber-wrapped rotors in the Model S Plaid, and investor-day claims of a next-generation drive unit using far less silicon carbide, a smaller factory footprint, and no rare-earth magnets. His main caution is the gap between a lab result and mass production, pointing to solid-state batteries and sodium-ion cells as technologies that took longer to arrive than early announcements suggested. He closes by referencing a comment from Marques Brownlee about EVs losing distinctive shapes in the chase for efficiency, and asks whether the next five years of gains come from bigger batteries or from making everything around the battery lighter.
Bottom line: breakthrough motor claims deserve the same skepticism as breakthrough battery claims, and the only number that ends up mattering is the one that ships in a car you can buy. That said, the point underneath the headline is the right one. Range and cost are increasingly won by shaving weight, not by stacking on more cells, and motor power density is an underrated lever. If this scales, the winners are not just the supercar makers but mainstream EVs that get cheaper and lighter. For now, file it as promising, watch for a production date, and treat 25.73 as a target rather than a fact.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.