Japanese Agency and University Co-develop Rare Earth-Free Motor for HEVs

Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Hokkaido University have jointly developed a rare earth-free motor for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), according to an announcement made by the two organizations on September 29, 2010. Output of the new motor, which is made of only ferrite magnets, is comparable to that of existing rare-earth magnet motors for HEVs. The technology was developed as part of NEDO's project to develop a high-performance battery system for next-generation vehicles.

Currently, HEV and electric vehicle motors commonly use high-performance magnets made from rare earth elements, but only a few countries in the world produce rare earth metals--Japan not included among them. Motors that contain no rare earth materials are desirable for ensuring stable supplies and lower costs. Conventional rare earth-free motors, however, have some disadvantages, including their inability to produce enough power.

To overcome these challenges, a research team led by Professor Satoshi Ogasawara of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at Hokkaido University came up with a newly structured motor that uses only ferrite magnets, called a rotor segment type axial-gap motor. The team then made a prototype the same size as existing rare-earth magnet motors for HEVs and carried out performance tests. Their results confirmed that the prototype had an output of 51.5 kilowatts, equivalent to the output of motors with rare-earth magnets.

The research team will continue to test the prototype to obtain data on motor characteristics under various operating conditions, and will verify its effectiveness as a motor for HEVs.

Posted: 2011/01/29 06:00:15 AM