Toyota to Bypass China's Rare Earths

The recent skirmishes between the car manufacturers of the democratic world and the Chinese authorities over the country's rare earths export policies is threatening to turn into a war of words and perhaps even some financial retributions, should an alternative to the materials coming from China isn't found quickly.

Currently, China, far from being the country with the biggest resources of such materials, is responsible for over 95 percent of materials processed from rare earths. As most of you know, the rare earths (like neodymium, terbium, dysprosium or lanthanum) have a wide range of applications, but the most recent one is part of the bright new future for the automotive industry.

For instance, a Toyota Prius electric motor is made of 1 kg (2.2 lb) of neodymium, while the battery uses 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of lanthanum. The problem is there are a lot of Priuses out there, other hybrids use this materials as well, and China just announced it put a cap on exports of these materials (4,500 tons to be shipped to international markets in 2011).

Not being willing to wait until the largest deposits of rare earths in the world (in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile) begin getting mined, the Japanese from Toyota are said to plan bypassing the Chinese problem by creating a new electric motor for its vehicles.

There are little details available on the new motor or what it might be made of, but the research has been acknowledged by several Toyota sources, even if not directly.

"Toyota is always looking for a reduction in resources and in terms of costs," Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco told The Associated Press.