At Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day on March 1st the company revealed that its next generation PMSM traction motors would not use rare earth permanent magnets.
As stated by Colin Campbell, VP Powertrain Engineering at Tesla, “as the world transitions to clean energy, demand for rare earths is really increasing dramatically and not only is it going to be a little hard to meet that demand but mining that rare earth, it has environmental and health risks”.
Key takeaways from Adamas Intelligence:
- Likely a ferrite magnet powered PMSM
- To-date, no perfect alternatives to NdFeB
- Not all rare earth production is equal when it comes to environmental and health impacts
- Environmental footprint of a motor using ferrite can be worse than NdFeB
- NdFeB market implications: Expected to be minor
Pensana plc (LON:PRE) explores and mines neodymium, praseodymium, and rare earth minerals. The Company’s flagship assets are the Saltend rare earth refinery project in the United Kingdom and Longonjo neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) Project in Angola.
