Innovative electric motors: Additive Drives wins German Innovation Prize 2025!

Innovative electric motors: Additive Drives wins German Innovation Prize 2025!

The company Additive Drives has established itself as a pioneer in the additive manufacturing of electric motors and recently won the German Innovation Prize 2025. This award recognizes the development of novel, highly efficient electric motors through the use of 3D printing. The award ceremony took place in the Dampfdom in Munich and was presented by the editorial teams of Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche. The founders Axel Helm and Philipp Arnold as well as marketing manager Lukas Günther accepted the award on behalf of Additive Drives. Philipp Arnold emphasized the company's vision to become the global market leader for 3D printed and customized electric motors.

Additive Drives' innovative technology has the potential to significantly transform the electric motor industry. The time for the conventional production of electric motors, which can take up to 60 weeks, is drastically shortened through additive manufacturing. The process of winding copper coils in the motor core is particularly complex, but the new methods can not only save time and money, but also achieve up to 45 percent more power with the same motor size. These processes enable the development of a new generation of electric drives that can find wide applications.

Optimization through additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing of metals has now become a crucial technology in various industries. The production of prototypes and pilot projects is increasingly being replaced by the production of small and large series. New design freedom through structural optimization methods allows component weight to be reduced and operating costs to be reduced. This leads to resource-efficient production, which is particularly important today. How Fraunhofer EMI notes, appropriate design choices are often more far-reaching than the choice of ultimate plant technology.

Additive Drives has responded to the high demand for solutions to improve electric motors by focusing on series production without tooling costs. This flexibility allows customers to adapt their engines to different applications. Customers include large German automobile manufacturers and numerous suppliers, but also companies from other industries such as pump manufacturing. In addition, electric motors are responsible for around a third of global energy consumption, which further increases the need for innovation in this area.

Foundation and support

Additive Drives was founded in 2020 with the support of the SAXEED start-up network at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and now employs over 80 people. The funding from EXIST research transfer from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) represented important financial support for the company. This included personnel resources for a founding team of up to four people as well as up to 250,000 euros for material resources over a period of 24 months. Andre Uhlmann from SAXEED highlights the success factors of the company, which is considered the most successful spin-off from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg in the last ten years.

Additive Drives' achievements in the field of additive manufacturing could not only revolutionize existing markets, but also open up new, promising industries, such as electric aviation technologies. Additive Drives' electric motors already achieve efficiencies and power densities of up to 35 kW/kg, which represents significant progress for the entire industry.