For over a decade, YASA has been unlocking a new level of electric motor performance and setting electric speed records across land, air and water.
YASA’s axial-flux motors are designed to be significantly lighter, more compact and power dense than mainstream electric motors and have been tested and developed with some of the biggest names in high-performance motoring.
2023 marks a decade since four YASA 750 axial-flux motors delivered over 850hp to the Lola Drayson B12/69EV, helping it hit 204 mph, smashing a then forty-year-old 175 mph land speed record for vehicles weighing under 1,000kg.
This was followed in June 2015 when the YASA-powered Drive e0 PP03 broke the Pikes Peak Hill Climb record by 25 seconds thanks to the 1,000Kw of power from six YASA-400 electric motors.
In 2020, two YASA motors were used in the Jaguar Vector V20E, which set an electric water speed record reaching 88 mph on Coniston Water in The Lake District.
A year later, YASA’s record-setting run took to the sky when three of its axial-flux motors helped the Rolls Royce Spirit of Innovation become the world’s fastest electric plane reaching 345 mph.
Tim Woolmer, YASA's Founder and CTO, said:
"It has been a privilege to help create a string of record-setting and first-of-their-kind vehicles over the last 10 years. Each of these projects were pushing the limits of what electric vehicles and axial-flux technology can do.
Our vision is to make electric vehicles better by reducing the electric motor’s mass and use of materials – while simultaneously maximising its power and efficiency.
Each of these speed and performance records proved we’re going in the right direction. But behind all of these achievements is the knowledge that what we’re learning today can help improve the electric vehicles of the future.”
The recently unveiled Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven is the latest example of how YASA’s unique topology frees up space and opens exciting new design parameters for manufacturers—paving the way for a new era of innovative design engineering and high-performance electric driving experiences.
2023: Mercedes-Benz unveiled its Vision One-Eleven, the supercar concept sculpted around YASA’s axial-flux motors.
2021: YASA’s motors help the all-electric Rolls-Royce Spirit of Innovation set two world records
2020: Two YASA motors were used in the Jaguar Vector V20E, which set the electric water speed record reaching 88 mph
2017–2019: Ferrari’s first plug-in hybrid, the SF90 Stradale, included a YASA motor
2015–2017: YASA’s motors are used in race cars that achieve an overall win and the first sub-9-minute run from an electric car at the Pikes Peak Hillclimb
2012–2015: YASA motors are used by Drayson Racing to power a converted Lola Le Mans Prototype to a sub-1,000 kg electric vehicle land speed record
2010–2012: YASA motors help power the Jaguar C-X75 concept that debuted in the 2010 Paris auto show and was featured in the James Bond film “Spectre”
2009: Tim Woolmer spun out YASA from Oxford University
Find out more about the story of YASA and our unique axial flux motors.
