Business trend
The Japanese
government is actively promoting the public-private alliance for the
development of technology to eliminate the dependence on rare earths,
responding to China’s export restrictions on rare earths. The Minister of Economy,
Trade and Industry visited a plant of TDK that produces rare-earth-containing
magnets for motors of the next-generation vehicles and announced the resolution
to assist private companies with their efforts to develop the technology to
eliminate the dependence on rare earths as a country policy.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry decided to allocate two billion yen for a 10-year government-private
sector joint research project to develop rare-earth-free vehicle motors. It
held the first workshop to discuss research and development trends on how to
reduce usage of rare earths jointly with the U.S. and EC last October, and will
hold the second one on April 28 this year.
Private companies
are also accelerating their efforts to advance the required technology.
Mitsubishi Electric developed a rare-earth-free in-car motor based on the principle
of electromagnet in alliance with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). TDK developed a permanent magnet that does not need
dysprosium at all. Nidec announced its plan to mass produce rare-earth-free
next-generation motors and start to ship them to automakers both at home and
abroad starting in 2013.
Development of a rare-earth-free vehicle motor
No comments:
Post a Comment