LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UQM Technologies, Inc. (NYSE MKT: UQM) announced today that it has made a significant breakthrough in the development of non-rare-earth magnet electric motor design as part of the work being done under the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research and Development Grant.
“Leveraging our expertise in electric motor design, we’ve developed an electromagnetic design that produces competitive power-density and efficiency with non-rare-earth magnets,” said Eric R. Ridenour, President and Chief Executive Officer of UQM Technologies, Inc. “This is great progress toward our objective of identifying magnet materials and technology that can deliver the performance our customers expect while limiting our exposure to price and supply concerns associated with rare-earth magnets.”
This work on non-rare-earth magnet motors is funded through a $4 million award to UQM as part of a DOE Advanced Research and Development Grant. Under the agreement, UQM is cost-sharing 25 percent of the total effort. The engineering team at UQM is working collaboratively with Ames Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop and apply these non-rare-earth magnets in a high-performance permanent magnet motor.
“The key to using non-rare-earth magnets in electric motors for vehicles is our patent-pending motor geometry, which in part defines the shape and magnetization direction of the permanent magnets,” said Jon Lutz, UQM Technologies’ Vice President of Engineering. “The completion of the electromagnetic design and analysis task is a significant step in the process of advancing motor and generator technology for electric and hybrid electric vehicles, providing an alternative to rare-earth magnets in permanent-magnet motor designs.”
The next phase under the DOE grant is the mechanical design of the motor. Work on this is now underway at UQM to produce a concept-unit build in the next calendar year.
About UQM
UQM Technologies is a developer and manufacturer of power-dense, high-efficiency electric motors, generators and power electronic controllers for the automotive, commercial truck, bus and military markets. A major emphasis for UQM is developing propulsion systems for electric, hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric and fuel cell electric vehicles. UQM is located in Longmont, Colorado. Please visit www.uqm.com for more information.
This Release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. These statements appear in a number of places in this Release and include statements regarding our plans, beliefs or current expectations, including those plans, beliefs and expectations of our officers and directors with respect to, among other things, future orders to be received, future financial results and the continued growth of the electric-powered vehicle industry. Important Risk Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements are contained in our Form 10-Q filed October 25, 2012, which is available through our website at www.uqm.com or at www.sec.gov.