Exotic Magnet Research Heating Up

"...getting things worked out at the basic science end..."

AHA! The key to good applied science (engineering) is good basic science - as has been true since the discovery of how to control fire. With that in mind, it should be a resounding "YES" answer to the initial question. Although the term 'ultra-green' may be a bit of a misnomer, because the electricity must still be generated somewhere, somehow. Until that becomes a matter of harvesting solar input by some means (direct conversion of light, harnessing wind from enequal heating by the sun, collecting tidal motion from gravitational orbiting by the Earth , etc.), or another non-polluting renewable source, it may be 'greener', but not fully 'green'. And certainly not 'ultra-'. Still, any advance is a positive for us all overall.

"getting things worked out at the basic science end"

Yes, indeed. A better, more stable ferrite material and better production is laudable. But, it is (just) basic science. It appears, not a single piece was (yet) produced with the proposed injection molding. I, for one, do not know of a single plastic material retaining its dimensions at the proposed 200 degree C (400deg.F?), when the magnetic rotor is subjected to centrifugal forces. Good idea, but..... The rest, is PR and sloganeering.

It could be one step in producing cheaper PM motors. However, motors are not the problem in electric vehicles, and some use PM (my vehicle), others AC induction (Tesla). 90% or higher efficiency is the motor norm, whereas generating the electricity is done at an average of 32.8% on average in the US. Batteries are fairly efficient, but horribly expensive and not too heavy, or horribly heavy and not to expensive. So, better magnet materials will help -- but that's not the big stumbling block.

Concur. The big problems are still the generation of electric power, and making it portable. Personally, I think it would behoove us to consider, at least, converting our road system (right down to the driveway level) into one big slot car track so there would be NO batteries required, and all vehicles could run on an induction motor system. What are your thoughts?

I think that is really the best solution, by far. And it requires no fundamentally new technology whatsoever.

Right now, electricity generation is not very efficient but that can improve in many obvious ways. And even if it does not, it's still somewhat more efficient (well-to-wheels) than the traditional ICE engine is in a car -- and at least we are using coal and natural gas, which we can get locally. (The EV1, on a well-to-wheels equivalent basis, got 59 mpg. A Tesla on the same basis gets 50 mpg equivalent.)

I'd think it might make sense to have a small battery pack to avoid local interruptions in power, and perhaps to reduce the need for powered roads in every neighborhood, but these could easily be lead acid, and cheap, because a 2 mile range would be plenty.

Imagine how simple cars could be.

There's been talk of doing the connection inductively, but doing so efficiently seems problematic, not to mention the miles of additional wire required.