Bentley’s Sights on Holy Grail of Recyclable BEV Components

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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19th February 2021

Bentley is embarking on a three-year program to crack the issue of poor recycling capabilities of BEV batteries and e-motors.

As a first step, it hopes the project will see the recycling rare-earth magnets used in selected ancillary motors for the very first time. The study, dubbed RaRE (Rare-earth Recycling for E-machines), intends to build on work completed at the University of Birmingham in the UK for creating a method of extracting magnets from waste electronics. The project also hopes to scale up the process and repurpose the extracted magnetic material into new recyclable magnets for use within bespoke ancillary motors.

Bespoke motors created this way hold the promise of reducing complexity through manufacture while supporting the development of the UK supply chain for both mass production and low volume components. Dr Matthias Rabe, member of the board for engineering, Bentley Motors, said: “RaRE promises a step-change in electrical recyclability, providing a source of truly bespoke, low voltage motors for a number of different applications and we are confident the results will provide a basis for fully sustainable electric drives.”

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_