US Startup Claims Rare-Earth-Free Motor Beats Magnets on Torque

A US startup is claiming performance numbers that, if verified, would force a rethink of how much the electric motor industry actually needs permanent magnets. On 30 September 2026, Best Electric Machine (BEM) published claims of doubling the nominal power and delivering up to eight times the peak torque of conventional designs, all without a single permanent magnet.

The timing matters. Through 2026, geopolitical pressure on rare-earth supply and the EU Critical Raw Materials Act have pushed original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to search hard for viable alternatives to standard permanent magnet motors.

Into that scramble arrives a bold proposition built on an unconventional idea: make the rotor an active contributor rather than a passive one.

This piece gives you a framework for weighing BEM’s active-rotor technology against established alternatives, and for judging whether these claims threaten future rare earth demand or simply join a long list of promising laboratory results that never reached production.

A note on the evidence: BEM’s performance figures were published in a guest essay by the company’s own chief technology officer, and the host publication stated it had not independently verified them. Treat the numbers as claims, not confirmed results.

Best Electric Machine claims unprecedented torque multiples using a dual active architecture

To understand the claim, you first need to understand what nearly every conventional motor has in common: an active stator paired with a passive rotor. The stator is the stationary part that is independently controlled. The rotor spins, but it contributes no independently controlled working power of its own. In a permanent magnet motor, the rotor’s magnetic field comes from the magnets. In an induction motor, it comes from slip induction. Either way, the rotor is along for the ride.

BEM’s SYNCHRO-SYM architecture, developed by chief technology officer Frederick Klatt, flips that. Rather than pairing an active stator with a passive rotor, it gives both assemblies independently controlled electromagnetic roles, with the rotor side brushless and actively excited in its own right. The theoretical basis is not new; fundamental relationships for independently excited windings on both stator and rotor were derived in academic literature as far back as the late 1960s.

Making that work in practice requires control. BEM’s answer is BRTEC, its Brushless and Sensorless Real-Time Emulation Control system. According to the company, BRTEC supplies and governs rotor excitation throughout the entire operating range via a brushless bidirectional power port, achieving stable controlled operation whether the machine is running below, at, or beyond synchronous speed without relying on slip induction, brushes, or slip rings. It also enables direct AC-to-AC power conversion with no bulky DC link and uses integrated rotor and stator metrics for sensorless torque control.

The performance claims published on 30 September 2026, measured against passive-rotor systems under matched package conditions, are as follows:

• 2x nominal power output relative to passive-rotor systems
• Up to 8x peak torque relative to passive-rotor systems
• A constant-torque speed range extending to twice synchronous speed, corresponding to twice the rated mechanical power of a passive-rotor machine

Here is the interpretive point. These multiples are not presented as magic. They follow from doubling the active electromagnetic components, turning one working assembly into two inside the same footprint. If that holds up, the investment case for heavy reliance on permanent magnets looks far less fixed than the market currently assumes.

Why OEMs are aggressively funding alternative architectures in 2026

The reason claims like this get attention at all is the money chasing solutions behind them. The rare-earth-free EV motor market alone is projected to grow from US$2.9 billion in 2026 to US$7.0 billion by 2033, a 13.4% CAGR, according to Persistence Market Research. That scale of growth tells you any credible alternative will attract commercial backing quickly, regardless of early-stage friction.

The pressure is not only about growth. The International Energy Agency and the US Department of Energy have repeatedly flagged that rare-earth mining and processing are geographically concentrated, which leaves supply exposed to export controls. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act was written specifically to cut that single-country dependence. For OEMs, that concentration is an unacceptable risk to price and continuity.

So manufacturers are already funding alternatives that work today. Synchronous Reluctance Motors (SynRM), which generate torque from the rotor’s shape rather than magnets, are a core magnet-free topology. Externally Excited Synchronous Motors (EESM), which excite the rotor with electrical current instead of magnets, were identified by S&P Global Automotive Insights in November 2025 as the most promising alternative to interior permanent magnet EV motors. Ferrite hybrid and copper-rotor designs have demonstrated 15-35% cost reductions relative to reference machines.

The active-rotor concept sits one step beyond these efforts: higher theoretical reward, higher integration risk.

What this shows is that the market is not waiting for a single winner. It is funding several magnet-free routes at once, which improves the odds that at least one scales.

The thermal and integration hurdles standing between prototype and production

Now cool the optimism. The gap between a promising guest essay and a production line is wide, and active-rotor machines have specific reasons to struggle crossing it.

Start with verification. The 30 September 2026 performance figures have not been independently confirmed by a third party. BEM has built and tested physical machines, including SYNCHRO-SYM demonstrated by adapting the active-rotor technology to standard-frame induction machines, sourced from a major manufacturer, whose rotors were modified to suit the architecture. A retrofit demonstration is evidence of a concept, not proof of mass-production performance.

Then there is the engineering. Industry analysts note that even brushless active-rotor schemes require complex multi-port control algorithms and high-bandwidth sensing. Active rotor excitation demands additional power electronics and reliable rotor-side power transfer. You are not eliminating complexity when you remove the magnets; you are relocating it into software and power electronics, which introduces new failure points that mass production has not tested.

Thermal management is the sharpest concern. Rotor-side copper losses generate heat inside a spinning assembly, which is far harder to cool than a passive rotor.

Industry analysts flag that active-rotor designs move heat and control complexity into the rotating assembly itself, raising questions over cooling, long-term reliability, and whether dual-active-winding machines can match the production scalability and durability of established permanent magnet, SynRM, or SRM designs without further validation.

The precedent cuts both ways. Doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) already prove active-rotor, dual-winding machines work at commercial scale in wind turbines. The open question is whether that concept can be miniaturised into the compact, low-cost, durable units that EV and industrial drives demand.

Independent validation and patent visibility

Here is the due-diligence gap in plain terms. The claims live in a published essay, not in peer-reviewed commercial testing. As of October 2026, no recent patent-database entries specifically naming SYNCHRO-SYM or BRTEC surfaced in retrieved results.

The move that matters next is the shift from retrofitted induction machines to bespoke commercial manufacturing. That transition, from modified off-the-shelf hardware to purpose-built axial-flux units produced at volume, is where most elegant architectures meet their hardest test.

Tracking the transition from startup claim to verified disruption

The tension here is clean. The active-rotor architecture is theoretically elegant and grounded in decades-old electromagnetic principles, yet it faces the brutal realities of automotive and industrial scaling that have defeated plenty of sound ideas before it.

Watch for three catalysts: independent third-party or OEM testing results that confirm the torque and power claims, patent filings or grants that establish defensible intellectual property, and any scaled manufacturing partnership that moves BEM beyond retrofitted hardware.

Until at least one of those lands, the prudent read is to treat this as an unverified claim rather than a priced-in threat. The near-term thesis for rare earth and permanent magnet supply chain investments does not need rewriting today, but the number of credible magnet-free routes now under active funding is a trend worth tracking closely.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions. These statements are speculative and subject to change based on market developments and company performance.