Slashdot Mirror
Honda Unveils First Hybrid Motor Without Heavy Rare Earth Metals (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Honda has unveiled its new hybrid motor this week that doesn't use heavy rare earth metals like dysprosium and terbium -- though it still does contain neodymium. The motor was co-developed alongside Daido Steel and will use their magnets in replace of the rare earth metals because they cost 10 percent less and weigh 8 percent less. Honda is the first automaker to develop a hybrid motor that doesn't use heavy rare earth metals. The company says the new engines will reduce its reliance on the metals that are primarily supplied by China. They're expected to make their debut in the compact Freed minivan this fall, a vehicle that is already on the road in Asia.
politicians are all talk no action. He is a businessman and will lead the us like a business. He will build a wall, to stop the crime from pouring into our country. And mexico is going to pay for it. He will be a president of the people. HE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
TRUMP 2016.
The last I went there for tech work I was raped. I walked out of the airport and three guys jumped me and held me down while a fourth raped me. Right in public in front of everyone. I screamed for help but no one did anything. They kept trading places and raped me for about 90 minutes.
This is what Brazil is like. You don't know anything....you don't know what it's like to be raped in a country with no laws, no moral codes. Fuck you!!!
This story proves why you shouldn't vote for Trump or any Republican.
The last I went there for tech work I was raped. I walked out of the airport and three guys jumped me and held me down while a fourth raped me. Right in public in front of everyone. I screamed for help but no one did anything. They kept trading places and raped me for about 90 minutes.
This is what Brazil is like. You don't know anything....you don't know what it's like to be raped in a country with no laws, no moral codes. Fuck you!!!
The democrats eat our flesh and drink our blood. Their speeches are curses, and they allow the demons to roam freely and FEAST on american souls.
The company says the new engines will reduce its reliance on the metals that are primarily supplied by China.
This is pure lip service. Guess where they get all their steel that composes 80% of the car from? Yeah, it's all coming from China anyway, so this is meaningless.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
of the asteroid mining fantasies. As we can see, new technology (remember about that endless progress) reduces the need for weird elements.
The Tesla has an AC induction motor (invented by Nicolai Tesla) which is just steel and copper. No rare earth magnets... no magnets at all.
It's about time the rest of the auto industry woke up and started putting some "advanced technology" in their fossil fuel powered cars.
https://www.teslamotors.com/bl...
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
China is in a special position with rare earth elements because, while not quite a monopoly, for some of the metals it is very, very close. They are an extremely important supplier of several rare earth elements.
Steel? You can get that from just about any country.
Honda could simply switch to using an AC induction motor, like Tesla. Not only doesn't it have any rare-earth magnets - it doesn't have magnets at all!
Hell, GE switched to using AC induction motors in their diesel-electric locomotives back in the 1990s. Get with the program, Honda!
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
F3reeBSD used to A productivity
Neodymium is a rare earth element.
All of them are heavy.
Article looks like pure PR and people bought it
This is pure lip service. Guess where they get all their steel that composes 80% of the car from? Yeah, it's all coming from China anyway, so this is meaningless.
First, steel does not compose 80% of a vehicle. The number is somewhere around 55% on average though it obviously varies by vehicle and it is about 25% of the cost of the vehicle. Second, Japanese car manufacturers do get some steel from China but they also get a very substantial amount domestically. Japan has a fairly robust domestic steel industry including 2 of the 10 biggest steel makers by volume in the world. There are also numerous steel suppliers who have no production in China at all. It's definitely not "all coming from China". Third, "the metals that are primarily supplied by China" they are talking about are rare earth elements, not comparatively common metals like steel. Don't conflate the two. Japan could in principle source all their steel from somewhere other than China if they wanted to. For rare earths, China is basically the only game in town right now. Totally different markets.
Rare earth metals aren't all that rare. It's just that other countries don't want to destroy their environments mining them.
Partly that and partly that China has made it uneconomical to mine them elsewhere. Not by accident either. China's government has strategically supported this with subsidies and cheap labor.
"will use their magnets in replace of the rare earth metals because they cost 10 percent less and weigh 8 percent less."
need to use twice as much?
Last half as long?
Car smells funny?
What is missing here? Otherwise there would be no call to use the ones they eliminated if these are better....
Seriously, by going to an AC motor, as opposed to DC, they could improve their efficiency, lower costs, and increase torque.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
In Japan, they block CHinese steel, because China dumps on their markets and Japan will not allow that, like America does.
SO, their steel comes from Japan, while their IRON comes from Australia and South America.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Seriously, by going to an AC motor, as opposed to DC, they could improve their efficiency, lower costs, and increase torque.
And the efficient AC power source for a battery-powered electric car? Where would that come from?
DC–>AC Converters are expensive, and they wear out. Ask anyone in the solar energy industry.
I hate to break it to you but the synchronous motors used in most hybrids and EVs require AC as well. All brushless motors require AC in order to generate a rotating magnetic field. In fact, the controllers are not all that different between an induction and a synchronous motor. The synchronous motor is dependent on the rotor position whereas the induction motor is dependent on the rotors speed. The actual drive of the motor coils is similar.
Generating AC from DC is actually not difficult with modern semiconductors which can handle a tremendous amount of current and they've also proven to be quite reliable as well. Every modern hybrid and EV ever made requires AC to drive the motor, regardless if it is an induction motor or not.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
woosh...
The inventor of the induction motor was Galileo Ferraris, but it is often credited falsely credited to Nikola Tesla.
Last time I checked, Japanese cars were made primarily out of recycled American cars.
Not sure where you got this nugget. Certainly not the case today or any time in the last 40 years. Pretty sure it was never true. Citations?
When you recycle steel, it gets harder and more brittle.
Not sure where you got this one either. Contaminants are an issue at times but as a general proposition steel does not "get harder and more brittle" from recycling. Heck, the second largest steel maker in the US (Nucor) basically built their business on recycling steel. Steel is just as recyclable as aluminum and is one of the most recycled materials we use.
"Honda has unveiled its new hybrid motor this week that doesn't use heavy rare earth metals like dysprosium and terbium -- though it still does contain neodymium."
I developed a new motor that doesn't use fossil fuel, though it still uses gasoline.
Chevy uses Fe magnets on the one (out of two) of its drive motors on the second-generation Volt.
In addition, Tesla has been using induction motors from the beginning.
In other words - the Americans got there first. ;-)
Is the car gluten free?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
My auto body instructor told me. He was ASE master certified, which means he knew a thing or three.
Doesn't mean he knew shit about supply chains and he certainly didn't know anything about steel refineries. I have worked in the auto industry for over 15 years as an engineer and have done purchasing for big and small automotive companies including steel frame components. Your ASE certified instructor didn't know what he was talking about in this case. Sounds to me like he was making shit up because he didn't like Japanese vehicles for whatever reason since it is wildly untrue that Japanese cars are made from recycled American cars. Talk to a materials engineer for correct information, not a guy who knows his way around a welding gun.
The hardness and brittleness of steel is a function of the grain structure and alloy of the steel among a few other things. It has nothing to do with whether it was recycled steel or created from ore. You could put both under a spectrometer or electron microscope and chances are you would be unable to tell any difference if they were made to the same spec.
Keeping your costs down can go a long way to controlling a market.
China doesn't even have to work too hard to keep their costs down because the main competition for rare earths mining is the USA which has some of the largest deposits and labor costs in the US are substantially higher than in China. Since you can't really automate things substantially AND the US has stiffer environmental regulations basically the US would have to subsidize mining operations to get the mines operational again. Probably in violation of WTO rules. For now it's uneconomical to mine them outside of China but if China tries to restrict supply I could see things changing for strategic reasons.