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

Modal Motors 试图将中国彻底排除在电机供应链之外

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. 最近，似乎每个人都在谈论将制造业迁回美国，尤其是在无人机和机器人等硬科技领域。Michael Van Steenburg 认为自己已经走在了前面。Van Steenburg 在过去十年里一直在美国和北美地区制造各种电机，现在他希望通过自己的新创公司 Modal Motors 再次实现这一目标。

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. 这一次，他希望彻底摒弃稀土磁铁，旨在进一步将美国与中国的供应链分离开来。作为下个月将在 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会上参加 Startup Battlefield 200 竞赛的创始人之一，他认为这是一个迫切需要提出的方案。“中国已经展示过几次肌肉了，”Van Steenburg 说道，他指的是中国限制稀土产品出口的举措。

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.” 虽然还有其他公司致力于在美国建立电机制造和供应链，但 Van Steenburg 认为他们的方法是错误的，因为他们仍然依赖稀土磁铁。他表示，这些材料的国内供应还需要数年时间才能实现。“其他人正在进行‘回流’，但他们基本上是在美国仿制中国电机。他们寄希望于美国的稀土磁铁系统能迅速跟上，”他说，“在他们真正能够取代中国之前，还需要很长一段时间。”

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. Modal Motors 在 Disrupt 大会前正在开发两款产品。一款是专为无人机设计的小型电机，也可用于风扇、鼓风机甚至执行器。据该公司网站介绍，其设计旨在“在最大限度减少质量的同时，提供最大的扭矩密度和效率”。更激进的设计是 Modal 所称的“混合谜题驱动器”（Hybrid Enigma Drive），这是一种平面（或扁平）电机，可以安装在更狭小的空间内。

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. Van Steenburg 正利用他在汽车行业数十年的经验来开发这些电机，并使其达到商业化标准。然而，Van Steenburg 为使 Modal Motors 的产品成为“去中国化”选择所做的工作中也存在一种讽刺：在 20 世纪 90 年代末，他曾参与开发一种混合动力传动系统，而当时中国希望将其用于所谓的“国民车”中。“这有点滑稽，”他在回想起那段经历以及世界发生巨大变化时说道。

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. 他说，没有改变的是他那种局外人的特质，以及对挑战困难事物的坚定信念。“我总是告诉人们，时钟在 25 年前就开始滴答作响了。在那段时间里，我目睹了一场慢动作的灾难：中国一直在全球范围内收购矿山、获取矿权，做着所有这些事情，并缓慢而坚定地垄断了整个稀土供应链，”他说。