LONDON: Bentley Motors has announced a three-year research study that aims to revolutionise the sustainability of electric motors.
Supporting Bentley’s commitment to offer only hybrid or electric vehicles by 2026, the result could see recycled rare-earth magnets used in selected ancillary motors for the first time.
The study, titled RaRE (Rare-earth Recycling for E-machines), intends to build on work completed at the University of Birmingham in devising a method of extracting magnets from waste electronics.
The project will scale up this process and repurpose the extracted magnetic material into new recyclable magnets for use within bespoke ancillary motors.
Adding to the sustainability benefits that RaRE will provide, the motors created through this method promise to minimise complexity through manufacture while supporting the development of the UK supply chain for both mass production and low volume components.
“RaRE promises a step-change in electrical recyclability, providing a source of truly bespoke, low voltage motors for a number of different applications and we are confident the results will provide a basis for fully sustainable electric drives,” said Dr Matthias Rabe, Member of the Board for Engineering, Bentley Motors.
This study will run in parallel to Bentley’s OCTOPUS research programme which aims to deliver a breakthrough in e-axle electric powertrains, using a fully integrated, free from rare-earth magnet e-axle that supports electric vehicle architectures.
As with OCTOPUS, RaRE is an OZEV funded project delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
