Rare-earth-less high energy magnets have been the subject of research at the lab level for a while, funded at the university level by ARPA-E and elsewhere but w

Rare-earth-less high energy magnets have been the subject of research at the lab level for a while, funded at the university level by ARPA-E and elsewhere but which have never been commercialized. It is actually cutting edge work. Iron nitride magnets are probably the most likely candidate, and they can actually have higher energy than rare earth magnets, and have particularly good high temperature coercivity compared to Neodymium based magnets, although not quite as high coercivity at room temperatures (but high temperature may be the limiting factor in existing motors). So I don’t understand where this sad sack negativity comes from, because it most certainly doesn’t come from knowledge in the field. There are materials science improvements over time, and this is one such area. There can be a net improvement, not just a pure trade-off. Niron Magnetics is one such company trying to commercialize the material, and you can go to their location in Minneapolis and play with their iron nitride magnets if you like. Tesla did use high energy cylindrical li-ion cells in their cars before others. Sometimes things improve, through the hard work of researchers.