Toyota Readying Motors That Don’t Use Rare Earths
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Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest seller of hybrid autos, is developing an alternative motor for future hybrid and electric cars that doesn’t need rare-earth minerals at risk of supply disruptions.
Toyota engineers in Japan and the U.S. are working on a so-called induction motor that’s lighter and more efficient than the magnet-type motor now used in its Prius, said John Hanson, a company spokesman. Research is at an “advanced stage,” he said, without saying when vehicles with the motors may be sold.