Development of European high-performance permanent magnets for automotive traction electric motors incorporating short loop recycled rare earths

The fast electrification of the automotive industry, as a preferred solution for the environmental impact reduction, increases the availability and supply constraints on the materials used in the electric powertrains, with the rare earths on the top of the Critical Raw Material act list. The question of European (EU) sovereignty arises since these metals are geographically concentrated outside Europe. Authors present results obtained within the HORIZON EUROPE MAGELLAN project which aims at developing, qualifying and producing EU high-performance permanent magnets (PMs) for automotive industry, incorporating short loop recycled rare earths elements (REE), being recyclable themselves and using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from the very start as a development and industrialization guidance. This approach targets circularity, resilience and decarbonation. Developed recycled PMs contain 25% wt. of recycled materials and are supported by a complete ecosystem including automotive traction motor qualification and the complete impact evaluation. The magnet-to-alloy short-loop recycling route will be used to fabricate recycled high-grade PMs at pre-industrial scale within unique EU pilot plant. This approach presents substantial environmental impact benefits in comparison with current supply. The magnetic performances of different recycled PM batches containing REE coming from distinct End of Life PM sources (light and/or heavy mobility) will be characterised. The results will serve as input data for a digital twin of the motor, allowing a screening approach to select the recycled PMs according to the required motor performances. The digitally validated batches will then be physically tested in a real motor with real recycled PMs. The methodology is structured as: Elaboration of the PM related process and their validation; evaluation of recycled PM performances within an automotive traction motor, and comparison against the same existing motor with virgin material PM; environmental benefits evaluation via LCA of such an EU PM as an alternative to the current supply.