Featured New Toyota EV motor needs less rare-earth metal, so costs less to make

Even Tesla went from induction to permanent magnet motors with the Model 3 and made a significant improvement in efficiency.

Bob Wilson

 

The gen2 Volt made a cut in the amount of rare earth minerals it uses for the motors over the gen1. One of the M/Gs might just use a ferrous magnet.

 

Tesla really doesn't care that much about efficiency, but it is among the most efficient, because of a engineering trade off of cost versus performance. When the model S was designed rare earths were more expensive. If rare earth get too expensive, they will add more battery power and energy and switch back. 110 mpge versus 126 mpge would require a bigger more expensive, heavier, and physically larger pack though, but battery prices and physical size are falling. Good to see toyota is playing the materials versus price game, but lots of more important things for them to do. They have enough people to walk and chew gum at the same time, but management makes improvements slower than a company like tesla.

 

congrats toyota!