YASA Launches Rare-Earth-Free Axial-Flux Motor Program With UK Government Backing

Highlights

• YASA is developing two motor architectures: one heavy-rare-earth-free and one fully rare-earth-free, both using axial-flux stator design.
• UK government support comes through the £2.5 billion DRIVE35 automotive industrial program, with Innovate UK and Advanced Propulsion Centre as partners.
• Project Resilience aims to reduce rare earth dependency rather than rebuild supply chains, potentially reshaping EV motor market segmentation.
• Success would not eliminate NdFeB motors but could shrink Western demand for Chinese magnets through engineering substitution across key applications.

Mercedes-Benz-owned YASA (opens in a new tab) is developing two axial-flux motor architectures aimed squarely at rare earth supply risk: one eliminates heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium, while another seeks to eliminate rare earths altogether. UK government support comes through DRIVE35, Britain's £2.5 billion automotive industrial program (opens in a new tab). YASA's specific award has not been publicly identified in the source material. The prize is substantial—but so is the engineering challenge.

REEx Insight: Don't Just Rebuild the Supply Chain—Engineer Around It

Great Powers Era 2.0 dynamics are beginning to change the motor itself. The West is spending billions rebuilding mine-to-magnet capacity outside China. YASA's Project Resilience attacks the dependency differently: reduce or eliminate the materials creating the vulnerability. That does not spell the end of NdFeB. It means substitution could increasingly segment the market by application.

Two Rotors, One Strategic Objective

As reported by Zahra Awan in Automotive Powertrain Technology International (opens in a new tab), YASA plans a heavy-rare-earth-free permanent-magnet motor for high-performance EVs and hybrids, plus a fully rare-earth-free design for applications with different performance and cost requirements. Both would share YASA's axial-flux stator architecture, potentially allowing different rotor technologies within a common motor platform. The wider DRIVE35 program is explicitly designed to move British zero-emission technologies from R&D toward commercialization and manufacturing, including electric machines and drivetrains.

NdFeB Isn't Dead—That's the Point

Here lies the missing nuance. High-performance NdFeB offers extraordinary magnetic strength in a compact package. Dy and Tb can increase coercivity and high-temperature performance, making their removal technically meaningful.

YASA therefore must prove power density, efficiency, thermal performance, cost, durability, and manufacturability—not merely demonstrate that a motor turns. Success need not eliminate rare earth motors. Even partial substitution across automobiles, robotics, and industrial equipment could alter future demand.

The West doesn't necessarily have to replace China's magnet industry tonne-for-tonne if engineering can shrink what it needs from it.

REEx Connect

REEx Note: Project Resilience remains an R&D/demonstration effort, not evidence of commercially competitive mass production. YASA's individual grant amount was not disclosed in the source article; performance and economic claims require validation at prototype and production scale.