Modal Motors is trying to cut China out of electric motors entirely

Lately, it seems like everyone is talking about bringing manufacturing back to the United States, especially when it comes to hard tech like drones and robotics. Michael Van Steenburg thinks he’s ahead of the game.

Van Steenburg spent the last decade building all kinds of electric motors in the U.S. and North America, and now he wants to do it again with his new startup, Modal Motors. This time, he wants to ditch rare-earth magnets entirely, in a bid to further separate the U.S. from China’s supply chain.

As one of the founders in Startup Battlefield 200 who will compete at TechCrunch Disrupt next month, he thinks it’s an urgent pitch to make.

“China’s already flexed its muscles a couple times,” Van Steenburg said, referring to the country restricting access to rare-earth products.

There are other companies working on setting up electric motor manufacturing and supply chains in the U.S., but Van Steenburg argues they’re doing it the wrong way by continuing to rely on rare-earth magnets. Domestic supply of those materials is still years away, he said.

“Other people are ‘reshoring,’ [but] they’re basically knocking off Chinese motors and just doing it in the U.S. But they’re hoping that the U.S. rare-earth magnet system is going to get up to speed fast enough,” he said. “It’s going to still be a while longer before they can actually replace China.”

Modal Motors has two products that it’s developing ahead of Disrupt. One is a small electric motor meant for drones that can also work in fans, blowers, and even actuators. It’s designed to “minimize mass while delivering maximum torque density and efficiency,” according to the startup’s website.

The more radical design is what Modal refers to as the “Hybrid Enigma Drive,” a planar — or flat — electric motor that can fit in lower-profile spaces.

Van Steenburg is drawing on decades of experience in the automotive industry to develop these motors and get them customer-ready. But there’s also an irony in the work Van Steenburg is doing to make Modal Motors’ products a China-free option; in the late 1990s, he worked on a hybrid gas-electric drivetrain that China wanted to put in its so-called “People’s Car.”

“It’s kind of comical,” he said, thinking back on that experience and how much the world has changed. What hasn’t changed, he said, is his outsider streak and strong conviction about doing things that are hard.

“I always tell people that the clock started ticking 25 years ago, and in that whole time, I’ve watched a slow-motion train wreck as China’s been going around the world, grabbing mines, grabbing mineral rights, doing all these things, and slowly but surely monopolizing the entire rare-earth supply chain,” he said.

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