US startup Modal Motors is developing small lightweight motors without rare earth magnets, targeting drones, fans, blowers, actuators, and robots, and will participate in the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt next month.

Founder Michael Van Steenburg has spent the past decade manufacturing various motors in the US and North America. The new company aims to remove rare earth materials from its supply list to cut dependence on the Chinese supply chain. He noted that China has repeatedly restricted rare earth product exports; during the same period, US imports of rare earth magnets declined before the summit meeting. He believes many "reshoring" projects are merely replicating Chinese motors in the US, still betting that domestic magnet production capacity can catch up in time, stating that "it will take a while to truly replace China."

There are two parallel product lines. One is a small motor designed for drones, emphasizing weight reduction while increasing torque density and efficiency, which can also be used for fans and actuators. More aggressively, there is a flat motor called Hybrid Enigma Drive, designed for low-height spaces. Van Steenburg has a background in the automotive industry; in the late 1990s, he was involved in a hybrid powertrain that China once wanted to install in a "national car," claiming that the clock started ticking twenty-five years ago, during which he witnessed the gradual monopolization of mines and mining rights.

The report did not disclose the financing amount or mass production customers. The company focuses its narrative on material politics: drones and robots must be assembled in the US, with magnets being the shortest link in the chain. The flat motor targets positions in the body and joints where traditional cylindrical motors cannot fit, while the small motor is aimed at the weight budget of multirotors.

In market mechanisms, buyers are drone and robot manufacturers that need to comply with NDAA and are wary of export quotas; sellers are motor suppliers that still include neodymium-iron-boron in their BOM. Funding will flow to those who can prove that torque density does not drop and can provide samples with non-Chinese materials. Beneficiaries will be design firms pursuing non-magnetic or ferrite routes, while those under pressure are manufacturers trying to make reshoring a matter of "changing factories on the same blueprint."

Additionally, companies like India's Vimag and the UK's AEM are also promoting rare earth-free or virtual magnetic synchronous motors, primarily in the automotive sector; Modal is focusing on the weight of drones and flat installations, and has yet to disclose efficiency curves, peak torque, and certification progress.

Source: Public Information