rare earth magnet eslectric-vehicles-drive-future-demand

A large potential growth area for rare earth magnets is in powerful drive motors for the electric car market. Typical projections for the use of permanent magnets suggest an increase from around $10 million of business today, to around $200 million at the end of the decade, for a global market of around 3 million electric cars. This will largely be filled by high-energy, rare-earth magnets. However, to enable the widespread uptake in preference to conventional magnets a significant reduction in manufacturing cost is required. Our analysis indicates that this technique may enable the required reduction in cost to take place, thus displacing the alternative conventional magnets in this application.

Beyond magnets
Of course, this technology does not just have implications for the rare-earth magnet alloys. The technique is general and can be applied to the manufacture of numerous other commercially significant materials ¨C often with previously unattainable forms. For example, the developers have demonstrated production of the superconductor niobium-titanium and the so-called memory alloy, nickel-titanium.

In the report
We describe:
? The background to the new technology
? Current magnet production routes
? Estimated economics of the new process
? Key researchers and operators in the field
? Who will be affected

To take advantage of this process, it will necessary for magnet users to work with magnet producers to develop the technology to point of use. We name key magnet alloy manufacturers with the resources to accomplish this.