Building electric cars is not easy. Assuring they are sustainable is even harder. But now, technology has evolved, and the recycling process has advanced. Bentley made some impressive progress.
Bentley announced a three-year research study that aims to revolutionise the sustainability of electric motors. Supporting Bentley’s commitment to offer only hybrid or electric vehicles by 2026, the result could see recycled rare-earth magnets used in selected ancillary motors for the very first time.
The study, titled RaRE (Rare-earth Recycling for E-machines), intends to build on work completed at the University of Birmingham in devising a method of extracting magnets from waste electronics. Furthermore, the project will scale up this process and repurpose the extracted magnetic material into new recyclable magnets for use within bespoke ancillary motors.
Adding to the sustainability benefits that RaRE will provide, the bespoke motors created through this method promise to minimise complexity through manufacture while supporting the development of the UK supply chain for both mass production and low volume components.
This study will run in parallel to Bentley’s OCTOPUS research programme which aims to deliver a breakthrough in e-axle electric powertrains, utilising a fully integrated, free from rare-earth magnet e-axle that supports electric vehicle architectures.
Bentley Motors – will lead specification setting and test protocol development and support the design and manufacturing activities.
