Key facts
- Modal Motors is developing electric motors that do not use rare earth magnets.
- Founder Michael Van Steenburg aims to create a U.S. supply chain for electric motors independent of China.
- The company is developing a small electric motor for drones, fans, blowers, and actuators.
- Modal Motors is also developing a flat, planar electric motor called the "Hybrid Enigma Drive."
- Van Steenburg has decades of experience in the automotive industry.
Modal Motors, a new startup founded by Michael Van Steenburg, is aiming to develop electric motors that do not rely on rare earth magnets, a move intended to further decouple the U.S. from China's supply chain. Van Steenburg, who has spent the last decade building electric motors in North America, believes this approach is crucial given China's past restrictions on rare earth products.
Van Steenburg argues that other companies attempting to reshore electric motor manufacturing are simply replicating Chinese designs and still depend on rare earth magnets, a domestic supply of which is still years away. Modal Motors is developing two products: a compact motor for drones, fans, blowers, and actuators designed for maximum torque density and efficiency, and a more radical flat, planar design called the "Hybrid Enigma Drive."
With decades of experience in the automotive industry, Van Steenburg is drawing on his background to bring Modal Motors' products to market. He noted the irony of his current work, recalling a late 1990s project on a hybrid gas-electric drivetrain that China had intended for its "People's Car." Van Steenburg expressed concern over China's long-term strategy of acquiring mines and mineral rights globally, leading to its monopolization of the rare earth supply chain.