The global transition to electric vehicles (EVs) faces a silent but significant hurdle: a structural dependence on rare-earth materials. As the industry scales, the geopolitical and economic risks of this reliance have moved from theoretical concerns to immediate threats. Chara Technologies, led by CEO and Co-founder
Bhaktha Keshavachar, is tackling this head-on by redefining motor design through a “design-led” rather than “material-led” philosophy.
Breaking the Geopolitical Bottleneck
For years, the EV industry has operated under the shadow of a concentrated supply chain. Most high-performance motors today rely on permanent magnets made from rare-earth elements, the sourcing of which is geographically restricted. This creates a single point of failure for global electrification.
“We are solving a fundamental problem on how to build high-performance electric motors without any dependence on rare-earth materials. Today, much of the industry conversation is focused on reducing reliance or shifting to light rare-earth alternatives; however, these approaches still operate within the same structural constraints. By going completely rare-earth-free, we are removing a critical
bottleneck in scaling electric mobility globally. This is no longer just a supply chain issue; it is a strategic constraint on global EV adoption where supply chains are highly concentrated geographically, creating a single-point vulnerability that impacts cost stability and production planning,” Mr. Bhaktha stated.
The New Economics of Electric Mobility
Eliminating magnets doesn’t just secure the supply chain; it fundamentally alters the vehicle’s cost structure. Rare-earth materials are volatile in price and can account for up to 40% of a motor’s cost. By shifting to abundant commodities like copper and steel, Chara Technologies provides OEMs with long-term price predictability.
“Rare earth motors come with higher costs, considering the import costs and the mining process involved, and they cover almost 40% of a permanent magnet motor’s cost. In our case, rare-earth-free motors use steel and copper, widely available, globally traded commodities with far more stable pricing. Our motors deliver better duty cycle efficiency, which directly translates into improved real-world range or the ability to use a smaller, more affordable battery. For a commercial vehicle operator, this shift is not just about reducing upfront costs, but about improving the Total Cost of Ownership in a meaningful, measurable way,” he added.
Innovation Through Intelligence, Not Magnets
Chara’s Synchronous Reluctance Motors (SynRM) do not rely on the magnetic pull of expensive minerals. Instead, they utilize advanced software and drive control frameworks to deliver top-tier performance. By replacing material intensity with digital intelligence, the motor becomes a programmable, highly efficient asset.
“Traditional motor design relies heavily on the material properties of magnets to deliver performance, but when you remove those, you shift the burden to design, control, and software. At Chara, we approach this from a first-principles perspective, designing the motor, controller, and control software as an integrated system where the controller shapes the waveform in real-time. In many ways, this is similar to how
software has transformed other industries; you are replacing material intensity with intelligence. This shift not only enables performance parity but also opens up new possibilities for optimization, customization, and long-term innovation,” he said.
India as a Global Tech Creator
This shift also positions India as a leader in deep-tech hardware. By building everything from the ground up, from design to manufacturing, Chara is proving that India can move from being an assembler of global parts to a creator of core IP that can be exported worldwide. This localized approach also revolutionizes the aftermarket, ensuring that spare parts are available in days rather than weeks.
Sustainability Beyond the Tailpipe
True sustainability must account for the entire lifecycle of a vehicle. Rare-earth mining is notoriously toxic, and recycling magnets is a complex, often hazardous process. Rare-earth-free motors offer a cleaner path forward, utilizing materials that are already part of robust, global recycling ecosystems.
“Every ton of rare earth produced generates 2,000 tons of toxic waste detrimental to the environment, and recycling these magnets involves complex, toxic processes. By eliminating rare-earth materials, we simplify the lifecycle of the motor significantly, as steel and copper are far more recyclable and part of established ecosystems. If EV adoption is to scale to hundreds of millions of vehicles, the underlying materials must be sustainable at that scale. Technologies that rely on constrained and environmentally challenging resources will face limitations, but rare-earth-free motors provide a pathway to scale without those inherent constraints,” he mentioned.
By integrating proactive diagnostics into their software-driven motors, Chara is also tackling vehicle downtime. By monitoring temperature and vibration in real-time, the system shifts maintenance from reactive repairs to predictive uptime, ensuring that the next generation of EVs is not only greener but more dependable than ever before.
