[carcraft]

Here is a little history on rare earth production in the US. China now owns a once productive rare earth mine in the Us. China controls 80% of rare earth production. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/11/12/the-collapse-of-american-rare-earth-mining-and-lessons-learned/

[philman_36]

You could have posted that as a counter argumment in reply 1.

[JD_UTDallas]

We have millions of tons of coal and also coal ash piles just sitting around. No shortage in the USA lack of political will and our prior administrations selling us out to China is the reason.

https://www.netl.doe.gov/coal/rare-earth-elements/program-overview/background

Also Tesla and Panasonic both are moving to cobalt free lithium cells this year.
Tesla are already rare earth free motors. That’s why they are called tesla who invented the asynchronous induction motors that Tesla used to drive their cars.

https://www.automotive-iq.com/electrics-electronics/articles/developing-electric-motors-less-dependable-on-rare-earth-magnets/amp

BMW is going REE free in 2021

https://roskill.com/news/rare-earths-bmws-fifth-generation-ree-free-electric-drivetrain/

Bamma is nearly done making rare earth free perm magnets as good or better than REE

https://arpa-e.energy.gov/technologies/projects/rare-earth-free-nanostructure-magnets

This is the commercial spin off

https://arpa-e.energy.gov/technologies/projects/rare-earth-free-traction-motor