EV Makers Rush To Find Way To Produce Vehicle Motors Without Rare Earths

The electric vehicle boom has unleashed a wave of innovation across the industry. We’ve seen batteries evolve at a dizzying rate, charging speeds become blisteringly fast, and motors deliver more power from smaller packages than we once thought possible.

Yet, that last piece of the puzzle, the electric motor, faces a growing dilemma. While today’s EV motors are engineering marvels, many rely on a critical ingredient that’s getting trickier to source: rare earth magnets.

For years, these powerful magnets, often made from elements like neodymium, have been the secret sauce. You’ve probably held one, those surprisingly strong little disks that stick stubbornly to fridge doors. But here’s the irony: “rare” earth elements aren’t exactly scarce in the ground; they’re just rarely found in concentrations high enough to make mining them easy or cheap.

Processing them is a complex, expensive endeavor, and currently, China handles an estimated 92% of global processing and 60-70% of mining.

This creates a major vulnerability for automakers. Designing a fantastic motor that depends on these materials is one thing. Keeping production lines running if the supply dries up or prices skyrocket is another entirely. For giant manufacturers, a single supply chain snag can mean costly shutdowns. That risk is now pushing engineers to rethink the motor itself, searching for designs that are powerful and compact, but don’t need those hard-to-get magnets.

A Magnetic Solution Without the Magnets

Some automakers are already shifting gears. BMW, for instance, was spooked by a neodymium price spike over a decade ago and started developing an alternative. Their solution? Motors that generate magnetism with electricity instead of permanent magnets.

These are called Electrically Excited Synchronous Motors (EESM). Instead of embedding rare-earth magnets in the rotor, they use coiled copper wire. When electricity is sent to these coils, via brushes or slip rings, they create a powerful magnetic field, just like a permanent magnet would.

It’s a clever workaround with some neat benefits. Engineers can actually adjust the magnetic field on the fly, which can boost efficiency during lighter driving. They’re also less likely to be permanently damaged by overheating. Of course, there are trade-offs, like managing the heat from the rotor coils and the wear on brush contacts, but the payoff is independence from volatile rare earth markets.

You’ll find these EESM motors in current BMWs like the iX1 SUV and the i7 sedan, and they’re planned for the brand’s next wave of electric cars. BMW isn’t alone. Major suppliers like ZF have developed their own EESM units, and other carmakers, including Nissan and Renault, are adopting similar technology.

The Road Ahead

Don’t expect every EV on the road to switch overnight. Retooling factories and redesigning vehicle platforms around a new motor technology is a massive undertaking. Many companies will continue with permanent magnet motors, trying to lock down their rare earth supplies as best they can.

But the trend is clear. As geopolitical and trade tensions keep the rare earth market uncertain, the push for magnet-free alternatives will only get stronger. The future of EV performance may depend less on what we dig out of the ground, and more on the clever engineering we put into the motor itself.

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