Transparency Market Research's "Electric Motors Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2025-2035" report, dated 2025-11-03, frames electric motors as a multi-decade conversion play from electrical to mechanical energy across automotive, manufacturing, household appliances, HVAC, robotics and renewable-energy systems [S1].
Adjacent segments cross-check that headline: the in-wheel motor market was sized at $808M in 2021 and projected to reach $4,395M by 2026 by MarketsandMarkets report AT 6559 [S9], while the laser processing market is forecast at USD 30,862.1M in 2026 reaching USD 62,075.1M by 2033 at a 10% CAGR [S2], a downstream indicator of motorised automation capex that pulls motor volumes along with it. For a spec-oriented reader, those numbers bracket the envelope an industrial buyer must plan around in mid-2026, and they connect directly to motor technology selection on the AC motor and linear motor reference pages.
Forecast frame: 2025-2035 baseline from Transparency Market Research
The 2025-2035 forecast window in [S1] is the longest-horizon public reference available for general-purpose industrial motor sizing as of 2026-06-27, and it groups electric motors by end-use vertical — automotive, manufacturing, household appliances, renewable energy, HVAC and robotics — rather than by motor chemistry.
For industrial buyers the implication is straightforward: a single "electric motor market size" figure is misleading because AC induction, brushless DC, servo and linear machines compete inside the same application slots; the same report flags EV traction, industrial machinery, HVAC and robotics as the four end-uses doing the heavy lifting on unit volume [S1]. A practical comparison frame for a 2026 specifier is therefore technology-by-application, not a single global CAGR. Two points to keep anchored: hub/in-wheel traction motors are a measurable sub-segment at $4,395M by 2026 [S9], and linear motion is its own curve — see the electric linear cylinders class for actuator-level demand — so "motor" lines on a BOM should never be aggregated into one number without breaking out the application.
EV traction motors: hub, in-wheel and axial flux as the volume driver
MarketsandMarkets sized the in-wheel motor market at $808M in 2021, with a 2026 projection of $4,395M at report code AT 6559, segmented by propulsion (BEV, HEV, PHEV, FCEV), motor topology (axial vs radial), cooling (air vs liquid) and power output bands of up to 60 kW, 60-90 kW, and above 90 kW [S9].
That $4,395M figure is the cleanest 2026 datapoint on traction-motor demand and pairs with IDTechEx's "Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2026-2036" report dated 2025-10-20, which tracks motor technology, rare-earth reduction, axial-flux, in-wheel, thermal management, benchmarking and suppliers across cars, micro-EVs, buses, vans and trucks [S10]. For a 2026 specifier, the relevant decision cells are radial vs axial flux, air vs liquid cooling, and the 60/60-90/90+ kW power bands — all enumerated in [S9]. Note that radial-flux permanent-magnet machines still dominate automotive traction, but axial-flux designs are increasingly referenced for in-wheel and high-power-density packaging; the 60 kW / 90 kW / 90+ kW bands are the standard cut points the [S9] report uses for power-output segmentation.
Industrial motion: linear actuators, servos and the motion-control layer
Coherent Market Insights' "Electric Linear Cylinders Market Analysis & Forecast: 2026-2033" (report CMI3031, published 2026-04-27) slices linear demand by speed class — below 0.1 m/s, 0.1-0.5 m/s, and above 0.5 m/s — and by vertical (food & beverage, automotive, healthcare & pharma, others), spanning North America, Latin America, Europe, MEA and Asia Pacific over a 2020-2033 historical-and-forecast range [S3].
That speed-class cut is the most useful 2026 datapoint for line builders: sub-0.1 m/s points to indexing and clamping duty, 0.1-0.5 m/s is the conveyor-and-pick-and-place band, and above 0.5 m/s is where hydraulic motor and linear motor architectures start to overlap with cylinder-based actuation in the food, automotive and pharma verticals [S3]. For motion-control engineers the 0.1-0.5 m/s band is the practical sweet spot where electric cylinders displace pneumatics; above 0.5 m/s, lead-screw and roller-screw designs begin competing with direct-drive linear motors on duty cycle, not just peak speed. The takeaway: never specify an electric cylinder by "stroke length" alone — the speed band and vertical in [S3] are the two filters that determine whether a roller-screw, ball-screw or direct-drive linear topology is the right fit.
Adjacent demand signals: e-bikes, low-emission vehicles and accessories
The Business Research Company's "Electric Bikes Global Market Report" (January 2026, $4,490) segments e-bikes by class (I, II, III), motor type (mid vs hub), battery chemistry (lead-acid, Li-ion, NiMH, others) and application (mountain/trekking, etc.), giving a hub-motor demand signal that complements the [S9] numbers [S5].
IndustryArc's "Hub Motor Market Share, Size and Industry Growth Analysis 2021-2026" (report AM 84227, updated April 2023) is a five-year-forecast tracker explicitly bracketing 2021-2026 for hub-motor demand, which makes it the most directly comparable 2021-2026 cross-check against the MarketsandMarkets in-wheel number [S8]. Allied Market Research's "Low Emission Vehicle Market" report A00456 (Feb 2026) is a parallel signal: it segments low-emission vehicles by degree of hybridisation and battery type, and any BEV/PHEV volume in that report pulls a fractional motor unit per vehicle [S4]. Coherent Market Insights' "Exterior Car Accessories Market" (2026-2033) valued at US$ 58.03B in 2026 and US$ 97.53B by 2033 at 7.7% CAGR [S7] is a softer proxy — it is downstream of vehicle output, so it corroborates automotive build rates rather than motor demand directly. For an industrial buyer, the practical filter is hub vs mid motor for two-wheelers, and the 60/60-90/90+ kW bands for four-wheel traction [S5][S8][S9].
Comparison: motor topologies against 2026 selection criteria
Using the public segments in [S3], [S9] and [S10], the four motor families a 2026 specifier compares side-by-side resolve to a fixed set of decision criteria: power density, speed envelope, cooling architecture, and rare-earth exposure. A practical comparison frame is below.
Radial-flux permanent-magnet motors — the dominant EV traction architecture — score high on power density and manufacturing maturity, are typically liquid-cooled above the 60 kW band, and remain the highest rare-earth exposure per kW [S9][S10]. Axial-flux machines — flagged in IDTechEx's 2026-2036 EV motor report — improve torque density and packaging for in-wheel and high-power-density slots, with cooling architecture still case-by-case [S10]. In-wheel hub motors from the [S9] report's $4,395M 2026 figure are split between air and liquid cooling and concentrate below the 90 kW band for passenger applications. Electric linear cylinders, segmented by the 0.1 / 0.1-0.5 / 0.5+ m/s speed classes in [S3], sit below the EV traction power scale and are specified by stroke, speed and duty cycle rather than continuous kW. The decision rule: pick radial-flux for cost-driven high-volume traction up to the 90 kW band, pick axial-flux for in-wheel or high-torque-density packaging, and pick linear cylinders when the application is below the 0.5 m/s band and force-duty is the binding constraint.
Limitations, sourcing traps and the specifier's red flags
Three failure modes repeat across the source set. First, the 2025-2035 "electric motors market" number in [S1] is multi-vertical and multi-chemistry, so quoting a single CAGR as "the" motor market growth rate overstates the certainty of the figure — break it out by end-use before forecasting. Second, the in-wheel motor $4,395M 2026 number in [S9] is a 2021-published forecast whose underlying 2021 baseline of $808M is now five years old; the 2026 number should be treated as a target, not a measured value, and IDTechEx's 2026-2036 update [S10] is the more current cross-check. Third, the linear-cylinder speed bands in [S3] are categorical, not continuous — sub-0.1 m/s and 0.1-0.5 m/s are not the same envelope, and overspecifying speed on a roller-screw actuator drives cost without buying duty cycle.
For sourcing discipline, the cross-vendor sanity check is straightforward: any quote that cannot be tied to one of the four decision cells above (power density, speed envelope, cooling, rare-earth exposure) is a marketing line, not a spec. A specifier should also be wary of conflating "motor market" headlines — e.g., the [S1] 2025-2035 frame — with sub-segments like the in-wheel $4,395M 2026 [S9] figure or the linear-cylinder speed-class splits in [S3], because mixing the two produces double-counted unit volumes. The thermoelectric generator adjacent market in [S6] (USD 829.1M in 2023, USD 1,987.2M by 2032 at 10.2% CAGR) is a useful reminder that "electric motor" headlines sometimes absorb adjacent energy-conversion devices; keep the electric ball valve and electric pallet truck actuator classes on a separate line in any BOM aggregation.
Trackable signals over the next reporting cycle: IDTechEx's 2026-2036 EV motor granular regional forecasts [S10] for revised 2026 traction volumes; the next Coherent Market Insights update to the electric linear cylinders report CMI3031 [S3] for a 2027-2030 redraw of the 0.1-0.5 m/s band; and any 2026 H2 refresh of the MarketsandMarkets in-wheel baseline [S9], which was last rebased against 2021 unit data. A practical next node for industrial buyers is the laser-processing 2026-2033 forecast [S2] — at a 10% CAGR and USD 30,862.1M in 2026, it is a clean leading indicator of motorised automation capex that will pull motor unit demand in the 2027 reporting window.
For related coverage, see Aluminum Supply Chain 2026: Smelter Casthouse, Alloy 5182/3104 Loop, and US.