Podcast Episode

Modal Motors is trying to cut China out of electric motors entirely; plus, PitPro’s first tire-changing robot goes live in Canada

TechCrunch Startup News

Sep 24, 20268 min

1Transcript1 turns · 8 min

Speaker 10:00

[upbeat music] This is TechCrunch. This episode is brought to you by Framer. Listen, your wardrobe is not the only thing that should be changing with the season. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about updating and refreshing your website with new content. And Framer makes that easy to do, even easier than trying to plan out your next outfit. Framer has everything you need to build and run a website, a canvas tool for design, hosting, a built-in CMS, and AI agents that work alongside you to help bring your vision to the screen. And it's all in one place, so you can stop skipping around to a hundred different apps. You can update your site and have it go live in a few minutes or build a new one from scratch. Now, I love Framer's powerful SEO tools that have really helped me zero in on my target audience. I could track my traffic through their analytics, and I can optimize my site so that it works across any device. Plus, there's enterprise-grade security to protect all my info. Learn how you can get more out of your site from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at framer.com/tcstartups for thirty percent off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com/tcstartups for thirty percent off. framer.com/tcstartups. Rules and restrictions may apply. You know, lately it seems like everyone is talking about bringing manufacturing back to the United States, especially when it comes to hard tech like drones and robotics. Michael Van Steenberg thinks he's ahead of the game. Van Steenberg spent the last decade building all kinds of electric motors in the US and North America, and now he wants to do it again with his new startup, Modal Motors. This time he wants to ditch rare earth magnets entirely in a bid to further separate the US from China's supply chain. As one of the founders in Startup Battlefield Two Hundred who will compete at TechCrunch Disrupt next month, he thinks it's an urgent pitch to make. He said, you know, China's already flexed its muscles a couple of times, you know, referring to the country restricting access to rare earth products. Now, there are other companies working on setting up electric motor manufacturing and supply chains in the US, but Van Steenberg argues they're doing it the wrong way by continuing to rely on rare earth magnets. Domestic supply of those materials is still years away, he said. Other people are reshoring, but, you know, they're basically knocking off Chinese motors and just doing it in the US. But they're hoping that the US rare earth magnet system is gonna get up to speed fast enough. It's gonna still be a while before, you know, they can actually replace China. Modal Motors has two products that it's developing ahead of Disrupt. One is a small electric motor meant for drones that can also work in fans, blowers, and even actuators. It's designed to minimize mass while delivering maximum torque density and efficiency. That's according to the startup's website. The more radical design is what Modal refers to as the hybrid enigma drive, a planar or flat electric motor that can fit in lower profile spaces. Van Steenberg is drawing on decades of experience in the automotive industry

2Episode notes

Modal Motors is working on small, light motors with no rare earth magnets that are suited for drones, fans, and robots.

Also, PitPro says its automated system can change four tires in under 15 minutes.

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