As mention on this blog before, 98% of all rare earths, many of which are deemed critical to the energy, defense and electric vehicle industries, are controlled by China. This leaves those countries and companies outside of China vulnerable to trade restrictions. Recently, over diplomatic tensions, China cut off supply to Japan a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles.
Industry officials said that mainland China’s customs agency had notified companies that they were not allowed to ship to Japan any rare earth oxides, rare earth salts or pure rare earth metals, although these shipments are still allowed to go to Hong Kong, Singapore and other destinations. But no ban has been imposed on the export to Japan of semi-processed alloys that combine rare earths with other materials, the officials said. China has been trying to expand its alloy industry so as to create higher-paying jobs in mining areas, instead of exporting raw materials for initial processing.
Japan has been the main buyer of Chinese rare earths for many years, using them for a wide range of industrial purposes, like making glass for solar panels. They are also used in small steering control motors in conventional gasoline-powered cars as well as in motors that help propel hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius.
Given my company, Rogue River Wind, relies on neodymium magnets to generate electricity we looked at alternatives to rare earth magnets, including the wonderfully plentiful and readily available old standby, ferrite. Recently, we acquired the rights to a radically new lightweight, high bandwidth generator design that can be configured to work with ferrite magnets, if necessary.
Because it uses no inductive wound coils it is very lightweight, not to mention efficient. As everyone knows, generators are also motors. This means it could replace the existing motors used in EV, reduce the weight of the vehicle thereby extending the life of the battery and use less expensive ferrite magnets.
Best of all, it could be manufactured right here in the US where jobs are desperately needed. Consider that GE will be building generators in China.
