Motor Technology for Electric Vehicles Yasa Develops Axial Flux Motors without Rare Earths

Rare earths from China dominate the supply chains for electric motors. Yasa, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, aims to break this dependency with two new axial flux motors.

Permanent magnets based on neodymium-iron-boron enable high torque and power densities and are therefore found in many electric vehicle drives. However, particularly in high-performance motors, heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium or terbium are often used additionally. While they improve magnetic properties at high temperatures, they also increase dependency on raw materials with geographically concentrated supply chains.