YASA has secured UK Government grant funding to develop fully rare-earth-free and heavy-rare-earth-free axial-flux motor technologies for future hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs).
The Project Resilience program will investigate two motor-development pathways intended to reduce dependence on rare-earth magnet materials while maintaining the power density, efficiency, and compact packaging required for electrified vehicles.
For high-performance hybrid and battery-electric vehicles, YASA will investigate heavy-rare-earth-free permanent-magnet motor designs intended to maintain power density without increasing motor mass or package size.
The company will also develop fully rare-earth-free axial-flux technology for vehicle applications with different performance and manufacturing requirements.
Both development routes will use YASA’s stator technology. This could support a modular motor architecture in which different rotor technologies are paired with a common stator according to vehicle requirements.
Rare-earth permanent magnets are widely used in high-performance electric motors because they can provide strong magnetic fields in compact packages. Heavy rare earths can also help permanent magnets tolerate the elevated temperatures encountered in high-power motor applications.
Reducing dependence on these materials is also relevant to EV development in North America. The U.S. Department of Energy has identified rare-earth permanent magnets as an important EV-motor supply-chain issue and has supported motor technologies designed to reduce or eliminate rare-earth content.
YASA’s work will examine whether axial-flux architectures can provide alternative material strategies without sacrificing the performance advantages that make the motor topology attractive for EV propulsion.
Project Resilience will be carried out at YASA’s UK engineering and development facilities through the DRIVE35 Demonstrate program.
Filed Under: Electric Motor, Technology News