EU actively develops alternatives to rare earth metal for electric vehicle power system
2017-03-24 18:45:29 [Print]
In order to reduce the dependence on rare earth metals outside of EU, the EU has actively researched and developed alternatives to electric vehicle power system using rare earth metals and made new progress a few days earlier.
Permanent magnets (PM) with rare earth metals as raw materials are key components of existing electric vehicle engines. The EU believes that the supply of rare earth metals may be unable to meet the demand in the future with the large-scale popularization of electric vehicles as rare earth metals mainly rely on external markets and thus it attaches great importance to the development of relevant alternatives. The main goal of "SYRNEMO" project which is sponsored by the EU and participated by Austria and other member states is to develop electric vehicle engines without the use of rare earth metals. The power of engines would be reduced drastically by 3/4 without the use of permanent magnets previously, but now the cost of the SYRM developed by the project using Ferrite as a substitute can be reduced by more than 20% compared to permanent magnet synchronous motors while the power density increases by 5% and driving cycle efficiency increases by 5-15%, thus becoming the most promising candidates for the next generation of engines for electric vehicles.
The practice of the EU reflects the trend of accelerating the replacement of rare earth metals abroad. Since 2010, US metal companies have increased their efforts to recover lanthanum, dysprosium and other rare earth metals from industrial waste. Some large multinational companies such as Siemens and Samsung have also accelerated research on the reduction in the use of rare earth metals. In 2012, the United States and Japan reached a consensus on cooperative R&D of rare earth metal alternatives. In 2015, a US research team announced the development of an alternative to rare earth metals, a new type of magnetic materials. In 2016, Japan launched the world's first hybrid vehicle engine that does not use rare earth metals.
Permanent magnets (PM) with rare earth metals as raw materials are key components of existing electric vehicle engines. The EU believes that the supply of rare earth metals may be unable to meet the demand in the future with the large-scale popularization of electric vehicles as rare earth metals mainly rely on external markets and thus it attaches great importance to the development of relevant alternatives. The main goal of "SYRNEMO" project which is sponsored by the EU and participated by Austria and other member states is to develop electric vehicle engines without the use of rare earth metals. The power of engines would be reduced drastically by 3/4 without the use of permanent magnets previously, but now the cost of the SYRM developed by the project using Ferrite as a substitute can be reduced by more than 20% compared to permanent magnet synchronous motors while the power density increases by 5% and driving cycle efficiency increases by 5-15%, thus becoming the most promising candidates for the next generation of engines for electric vehicles.
The practice of the EU reflects the trend of accelerating the replacement of rare earth metals abroad. Since 2010, US metal companies have increased their efforts to recover lanthanum, dysprosium and other rare earth metals from industrial waste. Some large multinational companies such as Siemens and Samsung have also accelerated research on the reduction in the use of rare earth metals. In 2012, the United States and Japan reached a consensus on cooperative R&D of rare earth metal alternatives. In 2015, a US research team announced the development of an alternative to rare earth metals, a new type of magnetic materials. In 2016, Japan launched the world's first hybrid vehicle engine that does not use rare earth metals.
