Modal Motors Electric: A China-Free Motor Strategy
Modal Motors electric motor development is taking a different path from most U.S. startups. Rather than reshoring rare-earth magnet production, founder Michael Van Steenburg wants to eliminate those magnets from the design entirely. The company is one of the founders in Startup Battlefield 200 and will compete at TechCrunch Disrupt next month.
Van Steenburg believes the pitch is urgent. He points to China’s repeated restrictions on rare-earth product access as evidence that the current supply chain approach leaves American manufacturers exposed.
“There are other companies working on setting up electric motor manufacturing and supply chains in the U.S., but Van Steenburg 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.”
Why Modal Motors Avoids Rare-Earth Magnets
Van Steenburg spent the last decade building electric motors across the U.S. and North America. With Modal Motors, he wants to separate the American supply chain from China further. His argument is simple: reshoring motor production without addressing the magnet supply chain only solves part of the problem.
“Other people are ‘reshoring,’ [but] they’re basically knocking off Chinese motors and just doing it in the U.S. But they’re hoping that the U.S. rare-earth magnet system is going to get up to speed fast enough,” he said. “It’s going to still be a while longer before they can actually replace China.”
That gap between domestic ambition and domestic capability is where Modal Motors sees its opening. Instead of waiting for a rare-earth magnet supply chain to mature, the company is designing motors that do not need those magnets at all.
The Two Motors in Development
Modal Motors is developing two products ahead of Disrupt.
Small electric motor – Designed for drones, fans, blowers, and actuators. The startup’s website says it aims to “minimize mass while delivering maximum torque density and efficiency.”
Hybrid Enigma Drive – A more radical planar, or flat, electric motor that fits in lower-profile spaces.
The smaller motor targets applications where weight and efficiency matter most. Drones, for example, benefit directly from reduced mass because every gram affects flight time and payload capacity. Fans, blowers, and actuators have similar demands, and a motor that delivers high torque density without rare-earth magnets could serve all of them.
The Hybrid Enigma Drive takes a different approach. Its planar design allows it to fit into spaces where a conventional cylindrical motor would not work. That opens possibilities for robotics, aerospace, and other applications where form factor is a constraint. Van Steenburg has not disclosed specific performance figures for either motor, but both are positioned as customer-ready options.
Decades of Automotive Experience
Van Steenburg draws on decades in the automotive industry to develop these motors and get them customer-ready. His background includes work on hybrid gas-electric drivetrains, which gives him a practical understanding of what manufacturers need from a motor supplier.
There is an irony in the work. In the late 1990s, he worked on a hybrid gas-electric drivetrain that China wanted for its so-called “People’s Car.”
“It’s kind of comical,” he said, reflecting on how much the world has changed.
What hasn’t changed, he said, is his outsider streak and conviction about doing hard things. That conviction shapes how he approaches Modal Motors and the problem he is trying to solve.
The Rare-Earth Supply Chain Problem
Rare-earth magnets are a critical component in most electric motors. They provide strong magnetic fields in a compact package, which makes them ideal for applications where size and weight matter. The problem is that China dominates the global supply chain for these materials.
“I always tell people that the clock started ticking 25 years ago, and in that whole time, I’ve watched a slow-motion train wreck as China’s been going around the world, grabbing mines, grabbing mineral rights, doing all these things, and slowly but surely monopolizing the entire rare-earth supply chain,” Van Steenburg said.
That monopolization has consequences. When China restricts access to rare-earth products, as it has done more than once, manufacturers outside China feel the impact. Motors are one of the most exposed product categories because they depend so heavily on those materials.
What This Means for U.S. Manufacturing
Modal Motors electric motor work sits at the center of a larger debate about domestic hard tech. Drones, robotics, and other industries depend on motors that currently rely on rare-earth magnets. Van Steenburg’s bet is that skipping those magnets is faster than waiting for a domestic magnet supply chain to mature.
Whether that bet pays off depends on whether the motors perform as intended and whether customers are willing to adopt a different design. The Startup Battlefield 200 competition at TechCrunch Disrupt next month will give Modal Motors a stage to make its case.
For now, the company is positioning itself as a China-free option in a market where most alternatives still depend on Chinese materials. If Van Steenburg is right, that distinction could matter more in the coming years than it does today.
Modal Motors is still early in its journey. The company has two motors in development and a founder with decades of experience, but it has not announced customers or production timelines. The Disrupt competition will be a test of whether the pitch resonates with investors and industry observers.
What is clear is that the problem Van Steenburg is addressing is real. The U.S. electric motor industry depends on a supply chain that runs through China, and changing that will take time, money, and technical innovation. Modal Motors is betting that eliminating rare-earth magnets is the fastest way to make that change happen.
