Category: Company Information

AEM urges UK automotive leaders to break rare-earth dependency before EV transition stalls

Posted on by telliott
  • Export controls and concentrated supply chains put UK EV production and net zero targets at risk
  • Proven rare-earth-free motor technology offers an immediate, lower-impact alternative
  • “The technology to remove this vulnerability already exists. What’s missing is the urgency to adopt it,” Dr James Widmer

The UK automotive industry is sleepwalking into its next major supply chain crisis, according to Advanced Electric Machines (AEM), which is urging manufacturers and policymakers to act now to eliminate the sector’s reliance on rare earth materials before it compromises the electric vehicle transition.

In a new white paper released today, AEM warns that the widespread use of rare-earth permanent magnet motors in electric vehicles has created a single point of failure comparable to the semiconductor shortage that crippled global car production during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike semiconductors, however, this vulnerability is structural, worsening and already being exploited.

Recent export licensing restrictions on rare earth elements have forced production shutdowns across Europe, with manufacturers warning that further disruption is imminent. With one country controlling the vast majority of rare earth processing capacity, the report argues that the UK’s decarbonisation targets, automotive competitiveness and economic security are all now exposed to geopolitical, environmental and cyber risks beyond domestic control.

The white paper also emphasises that most electric vehicles rely on up to a kilogram of rare earths per motor, materials that are environmentally destructive to extract and increasingly subject to export controls. With the UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requiring 80% of new car sales to be zero-emission by 2030, AEM argues that current supply trajectories simply cannot support the required growth in EV production.

Crucially, the report challenges the assumption that rare earths are unavoidable. It sets out how proven, commercially deployed alternatives already exist. AEM’s rare-earth-free motor technology has accumulated more than four million kilometres in real-world operation across buses and light rail, delivering comparable performance, lower costs and significantly reduced environmental impact.

Lifecycle analysis cited in the report shows magnet-free motors can cut environmental impact by more than half compared to conventional permanent magnet designs, while also removing exposure to volatile rare earth pricing and geopolitically concentrated supply chains.

In tandem with these developments, the UK Government’s new Critical Minerals Strategy is a positive step in recognising the risks of highly concentrated supply chains, but AEM argues resilience will not be achieved by simply sourcing rare earths from different places. Where proven technologies exist that eliminate the need for critical minerals altogether, accelerating their adoption offers a faster, more secure route to meeting net zero targets and protecting the UK automotive sector from future disruption.

“We’ve been here before,” said Dr James Widmer, CEO and co-founder of Advanced Electric Machines. “The semiconductor crisis showed how quickly a hidden dependency can shut down production, damage confidence, and cost the industry billions. Rare earths represent an even greater risk because the dependency is deeper, the supply chains are more concentrated, and the disruption is no longer hypothetical. The technology to remove this vulnerability already exists. What’s missing is the urgency to adopt it.”

The white paper calls for immediate pilot programmes by UK manufacturers, coordinated supply chain risk assessments, and targeted government support to accelerate domestic production of rare-earth-free motors. It argues that establishing even partial independence within the next five years would materially reduce the risk of production shutdowns, missed climate targets and loss of consumer confidence in the EV transition.

To view the white paper in full, please visit: [LINK].

ENDS

About AEM

Advanced Electric Machines’ vision is to design and build the world’s most sustainable EV motors for the global automotive and transport sectors. It utilises its expertise in materials, manufacturing and design to ensure its solutions are not only more sustainable, but also more efficient and cost-effective.

Based in the Northeast of England, Advanced Electric Machines Limited was founded in 2017, when it was spun out from Newcastle University’s world-class electric motor research team, led by AEM’s CEO, Dr James Widmer, and CTO, Dr Andy Steven.

AEM technologies are covered by 46 international patents protecting their unique motor designs and manufacturing processes around the world.

Contacts:

Advanced Electric Machines

John Edden, Torque Agency Group

jedden@torqueagencygroup.com | +44 (0) 7403 640 213

Euan Antona, Torque Agency Group

eantona@torqueagencygroup.com | +44 (0) 7702 334 887

The Rare Earth Contagion_V3Download

North East manufacturing – looking back and forward

Posted on by telliott

Advanced Electric Machines is proud to originate from and operate out of The North East of England. The North East is renowned for its rich history in manufacturing, and the region’s strong association with industry goes back many years. A whole host of prestigious companies set out their stall on the banks of the River Tyne and the River Wear, and these businesses had a reputation that spanned the entire globe. With this, the North East’s coal mining and shipyard industries became known far and wide across the world.

Stemming from as far back as the Middle Ages, the mining of coal allowed the North East to take advantage of the significant amount of iron that was found in the region to manufacture a variety of products, including anchors and tools. The Industrial Revolution laid the foundation for the area to become a hub of industry, with the worldwide demand for coal a driving force of innovation.

Such innovation was critical in the success of the region’s shipbuilding industry. Early shipbuilding achievements included building vessels for the King’s fleet in the 1200s, but the North East would eventually become the primary manufacturer of ships in Britain, which was itself the world’s largest producer of ships at the time.

Fast forward to the modern age, and while the coal mining and shipbuilding industries are no longer open for business, their memory evokes a sense of local pride. Mike O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer at Advanced Electric Machines, speaks particularly fondly of the North East’s manufacturing heritage.

Mike’s own family has a deep connection to the region’s manufacturing past. His grandfather and father worked on the area’s famous shipyards for William Doxford & Sons, where he helped to build ship engines that would be sold around the world. Mike’s mother also worked in manufacturing in the North East, making deflection coils that would be used in contemporary televisions for Philips Components. It should come as no surprise, then, that Mike would go on to help lead Advanced Electric Machines’ efforts to supply sustainable electric motors across the globe.

The path that Mike has taken, in having a pivotal role in the first five years of Advanced Electric Machines’ journey, has come from his “passion to establish a North East homegrown manufacturing business and put it on the map.”

This passion has been inspired by some of the North East’s most innovative industrialists – Mike is even able to reel off a list of the names of local manufacturing icons, such as George Stephenson (who built the first locomotive to haul coal in 1814), Joseph Swann (who developed the first incandescent light bulbs to illuminate homes and public buildings in 1881), and William Armstrong (a renowned visionary inventor and engineer who built the world’s first home to be powered by hydroelectricity in 1869).

Does the current manufacturing landscape live up to what the past had to offer in the North East? In Mike’s eyes, the innovation of the region is getting stronger all the time, with continuous investment facilitating a greater offering. One such example is car manufacturer Nissan, which is demonstrating its confidence in the North East by investing in its European manufacturing facility in Sunderland. This has brought tier one automotive suppliers to the region to supply Nissan, which has and created a hub of supporting businesses that have become a huge source of employment to the region.

Perhaps all that is missing in the North East right now are large homegrown manufacturers. While there is an abundance of smaller homegrown businesses, the bigger manufacturers in the region are predominantly established elsewhere in the world. Mike’s ambition is for Advanced Electric Machines to fill the void and employ people that are local to the area.

Advanced Electric Machines is determined to contribute back to the North East. Mike commented: “Although we’re manufacturing new innovative products with new technology, we don’t just want to look after our own business; we want to do everything we can to share the success of Advanced Electric Machines with the community. We want to serve as a local employer with local employees that are more than just a number, as was the case with the working communities established by our iconic manufacturing predecessors.”

As for what the future holds, the North East is certainly in a good place. Local councils have been investing heavily to support business development and new infrastructure, which will nurture local innovation, as well as attract existing businesses to the region. Automotive electrification in particular seems to have developed the manufacturing landscape in the area, with Advanced Electric Machines one of several local businesses pushing for greater sustainability. Mike’s belief is that, “the combined strength of automotive manufacturers of all kinds will stand the North East in good stead to continue to be a hugely successful manufacturing region.”

Origins of AEM – 2017

Posted on by telliott

At Advanced Electric Machines, we’re now recognised across the globe for our rare-earth free high performance electric motors and powertrain systems. The journey to get to this point has not been simple, and we’re still only at the start of our overall mission to make the world’s EVs truly sustainable, but to get a picture of how everything began for us, let’s rewind to 2009.

At this point in time, our current Chief Executive Officer, Dr. James Widmer, was completing his PhD at Newcastle University after leaving BAE Systems to work on more sustainable technologies. This wasn’t an easy venture, however, with electric vehicles only just beginning to look like a feasible possibility. Also working at the university was Dr. Andy Steven, our current Chief Technical Officer. Andy, an expert in rotating machinery and transmission technologies, had a long and successful stint in industry, but, like James, he sought to pursue his passion for developing sustainable technologies in an increasingly unsustainable world.

James noticed that vehicle manufacturers were looking to employ permanent magnet motors as part of their electric vehicle solutions, and he realised that if these vehicles were to become the norm, the quantity of rare earth metals needed could become catastrophic for the environment.

From here, James began to research and develop rare earth-free electric motors, supporting the first-generation development of OEM vehicles with JLR, Airbus and Cummins in the process. He then became the Director of the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Electric Machines Spoke, a role in which he would meet future Advanced Electric Machines Chief Commercial Officer, Mike Woodcock. Mike acknowledged another limitation of the use of permanent magnet electric motors – the lack of a route to recycling due to the copper and magnets they contain, meaning many would end up in landfill. This led the pair to question the possibility of removing the rare earths and the copper from the motor, and creating a fully recyclable solution. This would become the eventual mission statement of Advanced Electric Machines.

James and Andy’s work eventually led the pair to a realisation that they had developed a commercially viable product that had the chance to change the world.

Fast forward to March 2017 – a poignant moment in time for everybody involved in Advanced Electric Machines. It saw us spin out of Newcastle University and into the wider world, with James and Andy leading the charge. James and Mike Woodcock would then meet Mike O’Neill, who would become our Chief Operating Officer. Mike had been establishing high volume motor manufacturing lines across the world at ZF, and this skillset perfectly fit the bill for us to achieve our mission. Mike decided to join the team to reignite the North East’s roots in industrial engineering excellence and to build a company from the ground up.

It wasn’t long before the idea of this revolutionary company became a reality. Just a month later in April, we hit two prominent landmarks on our journey to becoming a globally recognised business. We secured our first Innovate UK grant, with this funding a recognition of the innovation that we were bringing to the table. The support of this grant enabled us to develop the business authentically, investing in the infrastructure that is in place today.

Speaking of infrastructure, in April we also signed the lease on our first production facility at Blaydon. For any business, acquiring a bespoke facility is a huge milestone, and for us, it physically established us in the North East, which we regard as the country’s hub for industrial engineering. At Blaydon, it took mere months for us to turn the location from an empty shell to a facility where our first motor was built and tested.

We didn’t stop there, either. By early July, we had completed a round of seed funding in order to assemble the funds to shape the business that we strove to create. And to round off what was an extremely busy first few months, we hit another significant milestone in securing our first commercial contract.

The beginning phase of any business is bound to be busy, and the same can be said for the origins of AEM. Nevertheless, this chapter in our history set us on the path that we are still on today, and we have no intention of slowing down.