Modal Motors aims to eliminate China from electric motor supply chain with rare-earth-free designs

Modal Motors, the San Francisco-based startup founded by veteran motor engineer Michael Van Steenburg, is preparing to unveil two electric motor concepts that completely avoid rare-earth magnets. The company will present the designs at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 200 competition next month, positioning the effort as a direct challenge to China’s grip on the rare-earth supply chain that underpins most high-performance motors.

Van Steenburg, who spent the past decade building a range of electric motors across the United States and Canada, says the current reshoring trend is insufficient because it still depends on rare-earth magnets sourced from China. He argues that domestic production of those materials is still years away, leaving U.S. manufacturers vulnerable to export restrictions. “China has already flexed its muscles by limiting access to rare-earth products,” he told TechCrunch, underscoring the strategic risk of continued reliance on imported magnets.

The startup’s first offering is a compact motor intended for drones, yet adaptable for fans, blowers and actuators. According to the company’s website, the design prioritizes low weight while delivering high torque density and efficiency. The second, more unconventional product is dubbed the “Hybrid Enigma Drive,” a planar, flat-profile motor that can fit into tight spaces where traditional cylindrical motors would not. Both concepts are built around magnetic configurations that do not require rare-earth elements, a technical departure that Van Steenburg believes will make the motors truly China-free.

Drawing on decades of experience in the automotive sector, Van Steenburg is leveraging his background to accelerate the development timeline. He recalled an episode from the late 1990s when he worked on a hybrid gas-electric drivetrain that China sought for its “People’s Car” program. The contrast between that early collaboration and his current mission highlights how the geopolitical landscape around critical minerals has shifted. “The clock started ticking twenty-five years ago,” he said, describing a gradual consolidation of rare-earth mining and processing under Chinese control that he views as a slow-motion train wreck.

For founders and investors watching the hard-tech space, Modal Motors illustrates both the opportunity and the hurdle of building supply-chain-independent hardware. While the company’s prototypes could open a path to domestically sourced high-performance motors, the broader ecosystem still lacks a mature U.S. rare-earth magnet industry. Van Steenburg acknowledges that other reshoring efforts may still lean on imported magnets, suggesting that a fully independent supply chain could take several more years to materialize.

The upcoming Disrupt showcase will be the first public test of whether the rare-earth-free approach can meet performance expectations at scale. Success could attract capital aimed at de-risking critical-material dependencies, while setbacks would reinforce the challenges of substituting established magnet technology. As the industry watches, the key question remains: can a new generation of motors deliver the torque and efficiency of rare-earth-based designs without compromising cost or reliability? The answer will shape the next wave of U.S. hardware manufacturing and its resilience against geopolitical supply shocks.