Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

The automaker is swearing off rare-earth elements—but experts are doubtful
https://spectrum.ieee.org/permanent-magnet-tesla

INTRO: Tesla’s investor day on 1 March began with a rambling, detailed discourse on energy and the environment before transitioning into a series of mostly predictable announcements and boasts. And then, out of nowhere, came an absolute bombshell: “We have designed our next drive unit, which uses a permanent-magnet motor, to not use any rare-earth elements at all,” declared Colin Campbell, Tesla’s director of power-train engineering.

It was a stunning disclosure that left most experts in permanent magnetism wary and perplexed. Alexander Gabay, a researcher at the University of Delaware, states flatly: “I am skeptical that any non-rare-earth permanent magnet could be used in a synchronous traction motor in the near future.” And at Uppsala University, in Sweden, Alena Vishina, a physicist, elaborates, “I’m not sure it’s possible to use only rare-earth-free materials to make a powerful and efficient motor.”

And at a recent magnetics conference Ping Liu, a professor at the University of Texas, in Arlington, asked other researchers what they thought of Tesla’s announcement. “No one fully understands this,” he reports. (Tesla did not respond to an e-mail asking for elaboration of Campbell’s comment.)

Tesla’s technical prowess should never be underestimated. But on the other hand, the company—and in particular, its CEO—has a history of making sporadic sensational claims that don’t pan out (we’re still waiting for that US $35,000 Model 3, for example). The problem here is physics, which not even Tesla can alter... (MORE - details)

If true, the likelihood is iron nitride PM's have recently 'come of age' and Elon has probably done a deal with the #1 company doggedly pursuing their development:
https://www.nironmagnetics.com/

Is it sensible pigeonholing this thread under 'cultural'?

Evidently there are other feasible candidates: https://www.autoblog.com/2023/03/20/rare...ic-motors/

Quote:
"The lack of diversity in rare earth permanent magnet supply chains is “a key concern for the industry within the geopolitics of critical materials,” said Nils Backeberg, founder at London-based consultancy Project Blue. “Use of cheaper — though less performance- and efficiency-focused — technologies is likely to become more widespread.”

One potential alternative could be ferrite magnets, made of iron and mixed with materials like barium and strontium, which are more widely available and cheaper, according to William Roberts, a senior research analyst at London-based consultancy Rho Motion.

GM has previously used these, and Japan-based Proterial Ltd. said in December it had developed motors using ferrite magnets that matched the performance of components using rare earths.

Minneapolis-based Niron Magnetics Inc., which has partnered with Volvo Car AB, last year won a $17.5 million US Energy Department grant to help scale up work on rare-earth free magnets that use iron nitride-based technology.

A team from the University of Cambridge and colleagues from Austria announced a new method to make tetrataenite, a possible replacement for rare-earth magnets, in a research paper published last year.

Ferrite magnets are the most likely candidate for Tesla’s innovation, research firm Adamas Intelligence Inc. said in a note, though the technology faces a challenge as it has traditionally come with a “significant weight or efficiency penalty.”"