Aurélien Fleurot 8:13 a.m., February 11, 2022

Renault and Valeo have just announced an unprecedented objective: to manufacture in France a powerful electric motor (200kW) which will not need any rare earth.

The manufacturer and the equipment supplier want to market it from 2027 and thus hope to reduce dependence on Asia.

Two French groups are combining their know-how to produce a new, more powerful electric motor without rare earths, an engine which will be marketed from 2027. A manufacturer, Renault and an equipment supplier, Valeo, have just announced this unprecedented objective: to manufacture in France a powerful electric motor (200kW) which will not need any rare earth.

A challenge of car performance but also of better environmental impact, while reducing dependence on Asia. 

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This future electric motor, produced in France, will equip, from 2027, in priority the sedans and SUVs of the Renault range but also why not other manufacturers since the equipment manufacturer Valeo will be able to sell it to its usual customers.

The industrial-scale production phase will take place at the Cléon plant, in Seine-Maritime.

Very good news also for local employment.

The specificity of this new generation engine will therefore be the absence of rare earths, a strategic choice explained by Christophe Périllat, the new CEO of Valeo.

"It's really an engine without equivalent in the world, it's an engine that we will therefore co-produce with Renault and that makes it possible to eliminate rare earths".

A term that includes 17 strategic metals.

"These are somewhat heavy atoms that are difficult to extract, whose prices are very volatile and there are questions of sovereignty that arise," he explains to Europe 1.  

 Copper rather than rare earths

These rare earths will be replaced by a higher density of copper.

Valeo and Valeo Siemens eAutomotive (a joint venture which will now be wholly owned by the French equipment manufacturer) will develop and produce the "stator", one of the two essential parts of the electric motor, resulting from Valeo's technological mastery in the assembly of copper wires.

By incorporating a greater density of copper, this allows more power to be generated without the need to use more electrical energy.

And for Renault, the interest of this new technology with components already integrated will reduce costs by 30% compared to a current electric motor.