Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Toyota developing alternative electric motor

Technology Jan. 18, 2011 - 07:05AM JST ( 8 )

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8 Comments

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sengoku38Jan. 18, 2011 - 09:57AM JST

About time. Hopefully they can succeed.
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the_harperJan. 18, 2011 - 10:51AM JST

Presumably it means that prices will have to rise to the point where other sources outside China become viable again.
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nandakandamandaJan. 18, 2011 - 11:25AM JST

China stated at the time that they were not restricting the export of rare earths. The article implies that they were. Who is telling porkie pies?
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LFRAgainJan. 18, 2011 - 04:01PM JST

That's easy. China is fibbing.

Possessing only a third of the world's supply of rare earth minerals, yet producing nearly 97% of the entire world's supply, China between 2009 and 2010 cut rare earth exports by a whopping 72%, then cut that level by an additional 35% for the first half of 2011, causing rare earth stocks to spike dramatically, prompting the United States to threaten to drag China before the WTO for unfair trade practices, and effectively freaking out any modern economy in the world that relies on these materials to supply the manufacture of high-tech goods.

Now, to be fair, there's no real reason China should be sitting in the driver's seat as far as rare earth exports are concerned and it doesn’t really seem fair to be able to demand a nation share its resources, particularly when you’ve got those same resources in abundance yourself. After all, “rare earth” is a misnomer: It's not rare in the least. Russia, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. have millions of tons of the stuff. In fact, up until the 1990s, the United States was the world's largest exporter of rare earth materials.

However, American and other companies were forced to abandon mining them because China undercut world rare earth prices by ignoring pesky things like, oh, massive environmental pollution and, uh, what was that? Ah, yes, worker safety. After all, when you've got a workforce of half a billion impoverished people living in rural areas looking for work, it's not too hard to find a steady supply of cheap labor willing to risk radiation sickness and mine collapses for a few yuan to buy food for the family.

Sadly, companies like Toyota will continue to be forced into corners like this in order to cope with China's growing obnoxiousness. While China innocently maintains that it’s been asking other economies for years to share the burden of mining rare earth, it’s a bit disingenuous to make such requests when your economy is one in which environmental preservation and worker safety, considerations that make the cost of mining these materials more expensive outside of China, are ignored regularly in the name of “advancement.”

And with a firm grip on the market, China has gone so far as to claim that because it is the world’s leading supplier of the materials, it should have every right to dictate world prices. More worrisome and despite claims to the contrary, China has already leveraged rare earth as a political weapon by cutting off rare metals exports to Japan as punishment for rightfully arresting a Chinese fishing trawler captain who blatantly rammed his boat into a Japanese coast guard cutter last year.

From every indication over the past two decades, China seems determined to show the world that brute force is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the hindrance and inconvenience of international law and convention, a position evident in the rare earth row. However, this could all come back to bite China in the butt, leaving it behind yet again politically, socially, and economically, as other economies adapt and adopt in economic systems that by their very nature are designed to innovate in the face of market demands. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this.
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RaymasakiJan. 18, 2011 - 11:16PM JST

Sorry but this isn't New. ever see the Movie (who killed the Electric car)? in 1997 some were made & it saved alot of Money NO fuel/Gas needed. so many people thought oh its the "US Government" that stopped this so they can continue to make Money off Oil. BUT wait a second! WHY Didn't other countries copy this? an Electric Motor would be one of the easyist things to make. IF 7 top countries are useing Eletric cars & we are useing Fuled cars then i could see it being True. it would be Great to see Most cars Electric. & OH well for the oil companies that will lose Billions. it would be better for the Evironment too.
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kodaiflowJan. 19, 2011 - 01:39AM JST

The majority of applications in industry and around your home use induction motors that require no rare earths. They work fine but they complicate the inverter and control design. There have been major advances in super capacitors and power mosfets since the drive for the Prius was developed. Permanent magnet motors where always a temporary fix.
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VicMOsakaJan. 23, 2011 - 01:30PM JST

China is a bully. Good on Toyota. I ams sure they will succeed .
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nandakandamandaJan. 23, 2011 - 02:23PM JST

The article seemed to suggest that Toyota was developing a new type of motor. Hey, this sounds exciting, I thought. No detail is given, however, except to say that this new motor will rely less on rare earths. Erm...does that mean that it is promising to be new in some small detail, but otherwise not really new after all? Frustrating article, IMHO.