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Toyota Seeks To Ditch Rare Earth Metals from Electric Motors

 
1,545 views Jan 17, 2011
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GM electric motor

GM electric motor

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As hybrid cars and electric vehicles increase in market share, rare earth metals like neodymium - a soft metal which is used to create the ultra-strong magnets used in electric motors - are becoming increasingly expensive and sought-after. 

But it’s not just demand causing a rise in prices: China, home to one of the largest neodymium mining projects in the world, is keen to use its rare earth metals to hold the world to ransom with unpredictable supply and price hikes. 

Enter Toyota. According to a report by the Associated Press, the world’s largest automaker is working on a new type of motor which does not use any rare-earth metals. 

An electric motor created without rare earth metals would dramatically reduce production costs and by association, the cost of electric vehicles. 

A typical mining operation

A typical mining operation

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Toyota’s work isn’t ground-breaking.  Back in October, the EETimes reported that Japanese scientists working for government-backed New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and the Hokkaido University were working on just a project. 

The use of neodymium in motors has enabled motors to increase in power and decrease in size and weight over the years. Many electric drag racing cars use high power DC motors which contain ultra-strong magnets to give huge amounts of torque in a small package

While there's more to a strong motor than just a magnet they would not be as powerful as it is without the addition of  neodymium magnets.

With prices of neodymium still rising and exports from China dropping by 30 percent in 2010 as it keeps more of the metals for its own burgeoning electric car industry, Toyota’s work is perfectly timed. 

Understandably, Toyota hasn’t unveiled any specifics of how the breakthrough works but has hinted that the motor it is developing will have the same size and power output as a motor using rare-earth metals. 

While Toyota’s stance on electric vehicles has not always been rosy, the automaker recently announced an expansion to its world-leading Prius hybrid-electric brand. 

Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda, at Tesla stand, 2011 Detroit Auto Show

Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda, at Tesla stand, 2011 Detroit Auto Show

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Last year Toyota also announced it was working alongside Tesla Motors to relaunch a modern version of its iconic RAV4 EV as well as launch another all-electric vehicle in 2012. 

Combined with what seems to be a flourishing ‘bromance’ between Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, we think Toyota opinion of the electric car is becoming more positive by the day.  

[Toyota] via [AP]





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Comments (5)

  1. By JP Posted: 1/17/2011 7:24am PST

    This is nothing new…After 9/11 the Chinese Government went around and bought up the worlds surplus in precious metals for the aerospace industry. We were left scrambling and had to pay a premium for raw material. Companies cannot compete with the Chinese Government.
     
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  2. By KeiJidosha Posted: 1/17/2011 11:40am PST

    I think the motor from AC Propulsion used in the MINI E is also an "Induction" motor that does not use a permanent magnet. I had heard that it is not as efficient at peak power, but was as, or more efficient where a car motor normally operates. It does have a penalty in more complex software to operate, and may also require patent fees. But it would seem that intellectual property might be less expensive in the long run than rare-earth mining. Capitalist wisdom will show us the cheapest way, if not the best.
     
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  3. fb_1089324431 avatar Tom Saxton Posted: 1/17/2011 12:39pm PST

    The Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf and GM Volt all use AC induction motors that contain no permanent magnets or rare earth metals. The AC induction motor was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1883. It was used by the GM EV1 and by AC Propulsion in the t-zero and later vehicles.
     
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  4. By  liveforphysics Posted: 1/18/2011 9:45am PST

    "The use of neodymium in motors has enabled motors to increase in power and decrease in size and weight over the years. Many electric drag racing cars use high power DC motors which contain ultra-strong magnets to give huge amounts of torque in a small package"
    I attached a link to the NEDRA (electric drag racing) records.
    Every single one is either series-wound DC, some parallel shunt types, or SepEx brushed, or an induction motor. Not a single PM motor in the bunch. Not a single motor using REE's in the whole bunch. (unless someone has made an undocumented change recently?)
    The reason is simple, if you want burst torque density, any permanent magnet has a fixed flux value that it can't exceed, where as a conductor MUST develop flux proportionate to the current passing through it. This makes the torque density of a motor without permanent magnets effectively only limited by the iron saturation point and the time until you reach a temperature that induces mechanical failure.
    This is why ideal motors for drag racing do not use permanent magnets, and why inherently you see the record holders are not using them.
    The advantage of REE's in motors is to improve efficiency by not needing to use pack energy to create the fixed magnet field. The disadvantage is the inability to reduce the field during times when you don't need as much flux density (which creates parasitic eddy currents).
     
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  5. fb_535830066 avatar Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield Posted: 1/18/2011 1:21pm PST

    Thanks for putting us straight.
    Sorry for getting it wrong.
     
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