These motors can help break the world's dependence on China
Technician and Tran assemble electric motors in a needle chamber in Sunnyvale, California - Ian Bates
What if the world has a way to break its dependence on China’s rare earths, what if the country repeatedly used as a retaliation during the trade war? That's the promise of new motors, the main locations where these rare earths are needed - they are not needed at all. A new startup called Conifer, which uses magnets made of everyday iron to launch cheap, easy-to-manufacturing motors, is particularly fun.
Conifer technology leader Yateendra Deshpande spent years helping design some of the world’s most advanced electric motors, including those that power Lucid Motors luxury cars. He has worked at Apple on its bad luck automotive projects. His co-founder Ankit Somani works in data center design on Oracle and Google.
Together, they launched conifers to address a potential large market: billions of motors are needed to land existing machinery demands and help electrify the current gasoline-powered transport fleet, the main transport model for billions of people.
"There is a lot of energy in the battery space, but the power of the motor and the motor is not enough," said Somani, CEO of the company. "We want to rethink it from scratch and see if we can come up with something better."
Conifer CEO Ankit Somani wants to focus on cost, simplicity and procurement. - Ian Bates
Silicon Valley-based conifers must be overly concerned about cost, simplicity, and procurement. Its solution is to adopt the design found in high-end hybrid supercars and then reduce the material size and bill of materials. Its motors can use permanent magnets based on ordinary old iron, rather than those rare earth magnets.
What they are doing is risk - the technology they use has never used such an application before, because historically it has been difficult to make. Meanwhile, the ferromagnet does not provide enough power. But if they get a combination of cost and manufacturing, their motors have the potential to be the preferred low-cost power plant for countless applications.
For manufacturers of everything from electric cars to robots, this is a dream: an affordable, easy-to-manufacturing motor that can be made entirely from materials within the boundaries of most countries. This is a technology to prevent tariffs. Now, China controls 90% of the world's rare earth minerals, which are magnets in most electric motors and other electronic products, and that's also a top priority.
I don't have an engineering degree, nor do most people, so wait a moment - we're going to get electromagnetic.
A typical motor is "radial flux": a copper wire coil around the central axis to which the magnet is connected. When power is applied, the magnetic field in the copper wire is at a right angle to the axis and begins to rotate. If this sounds like a home experiment you or your child uses copper wire and steel nails, then you get it.
In contrast, the motor of the conifer is "axial flux". They consist of a steel plate sandwich, some fixed, while others are attached to the shaft and can rotate freely. The magnet sits on these plates, the magnetic field is parallel to the axis.
The conifer motors take the design found in high-end hybrid supercars and narrow down the material size and bill of materials. - Ian Bates
Axial sublimation motors date back centuries, just like their radial frequency counterparts. But modern work is much better because we now have power electronics that switch quickly, which are toggled and shut down hundreds of times per second, so as they spin faster and faster, adjusting that frequency faster.
Axial sublimation motors are harder to manufacture and often require a certain level of precision and software control that prevents them from widespread adoption, said James Edmondson, research director at IDTECHEX, an emerging technology analysis firm. However, they began to show potential.
Typically, both types of motors require magnets made from a mixture of rare earth elements: neon lights may form a bulk of magnets, and disease disorders can help them survive at high speeds and temperatures.
But conifer engineers saw the opportunity to axially sublimate the design: by using larger magnets, placing them on a rotating plate and spinning the plates at a higher speed than typical, Conifer has managed to use weak iron based tools, Deshpande, the company's technology co-creator, said.
The first modest goal of Conifer: Create an existing motor for the existing motor to enter a scooter like Vespa. The company has also developed several sizes of electric motors that can fit other machines, from HVAC systems to home electronics. The technology can be extended to electric vehicles. A small but highway-ready electric vehicle powered by a conifer motor could happen within four years, Deshpande said.
Lyra Energy aims to build two-wheelers for developing countries, which is high-end and supported by its own charging network. The Los Angeles-based startup is using a conifer motor.
“Supply chain flexibility is always valuable, especially when we start to expand our business,” said Criswell Choi, CEO of Lyra. “In the long run, I think there is an opportunity to reduce the cost of the system, especially when it’s not too dependent on rare earths.”
Lyra's cars are being launched in the global market, first in Indonesia. McKinsey's report shows that 45 million units are sold each year in Asia alone, and the global market for two-wheelers is expected to grow to $218 billion, according to McKinsey's report.
Choi said the conifer’s hub motors are at a price comparable to traditional motors. They bring an extra bonus: in fact, they are 20% more efficient than traditional ones and may increase vehicle range accordingly.
The same motor technology can be extended to the power of a four-wheeled electric vehicle, but there are limits to the power it can provide without a rare earth magnet.
A needle motor is an axial flux, unlike a typical radial fluid lift motor. - Ian Bates
Electric motors using conifers also require changes to the electric vehicle design. Most electric vehicles have centralized electric motors that transfer power to the wheels. Conifer electric motor life In the wheels. For some automotive designers, electric cars with hub motors have long been a dream, as this could mean overall improvements in efficiency and traction.
Making many changes at once (a new type of electric motor, a new type of powertrain) is not something that established electric car manufacturers can do very quickly. However, startups may seize opportunities, especially if alternatives face increased costs caused by tariffs.
While axial flow and rare motors represent only a small part of the market so far, conifer motors or similar designs from competitors may become more competitive, Edmonson said. The simplified manufacturing process of conifers does not involve metal stamping and uses copper wire stamping processes inspired by the battery industry. This means looking for skilled labor, which may be scarce, and that is not a problem.
If manufacturers are willing to abandon designs for more than a century, they are increasingly substitute, even based on the concept of Benjamin Franklin. Add to that new batteries, no other China-led supply chain, as well as domestically made microchips and growing supply chains for U.S. electric vehicle startups, you can start to see a future where transportation can be fully manufactured in the United States or at least in North America.
Write to Christopher Mims via Christopher.mims@wsj.com
