Toyota minimises metal magnet use

20/02/2018

Toyota minimises metal magnet use

Reuters reports that Toyota Motor Corp has been able to reduce the amount of neodymium used in magnets for electric car motors.

The discovery will cut the amount of the rare earth metal used by around 20%. Toyota says that it has developed a magnet which uses lanthanum and cerium, both of which are found more frequently than neodymium which should be introduced into electric vehicle motors over the next 10 years.

A temporary export ban of neodymium by major supplier China in 2010 during a territorial dispute with Japan and periodic supply shortages have highlighted automakers' dependence on these materials.

'An increase in electric car production will raise the need for motors, which will result in higher demand for neodymium down the line,' Akira Kato, general project manager at Toyota's advanced R&D and engineering company, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo.

'If we continue to use neodymium at this pace we'll eventually experience a supply shortage ... so we wanted to come up with technology which would help conserve neodymium stocks.'

Neodymium costs around $100 per kg and terbium and dysprosium (also rarer metals used in magnets) costing $900/kg and $400/kg respectively, but manufacturers have found ways to eliminate the use of the latter two materials. Toyota has been able to replace some neodymium with lanthanum and cerium which are around $5-7/kg each.

Toyota has come up with a way to cut out the expensive metals from the magnets and also reduce the amount of neodymium in favour of lanthanum and cerium, which each cost around $5-$7 per kilogram.