Elon Musk says Tesla’s new Cybercab motor has no rare earths, but analysts saw the move as only a slight step towards reducing industry reliance – or China’s leverage
3-MIN READ3-MINSylvia Main ShanghaiPublished: 9:14pm, 8 Sep 2026As Tesla CEO Elon Musk touted the motor of his company’s Cybercab – which, he claims, contains no rare earth elements – debate has emerged over whether the technology could mark a meaningful shift in electric vehicle (EV) supply chains, or undercut one of China’s trump cards in its protracted trade conflict with the US.While the move has been viewed as an effort to reduce the EV industry’s reliance on rare earths – an essential component in the permanent magnets that power electric motors – analysts said it would be difficult to meaningfully weaken China’s leverage, given the challenges of scaling the technology and the minerals’ widespread use across other industries.Their comments followed a social media post from Musk on Friday saying the motor of Tesla’s new self-driving Cybercab used no rare earth metals while maintaining the same range, a progress he described as “extremely hard to achieve”.David Zhang, general secretary of the Shanghai-based International Intelligent Vehicle Engineering Association, said that Tesla’s rare-earth-free motor remained largely a “commercial concept”, and it was still not certain whether the vehicle’s engine could match the efficiency and performance of conventional motors containing rare earth permanent magnets.
“Musk’s recent claim reflects Tesla’s efforts to strengthen supply chain security as the US and China use advanced chips and rare earths, respectively, as leverage against each other,” he said.
Zhang noted that Tesla initially used rare-earth-free AC induction motors before adopting rare earth permanent-magnet motors in mass production with the Model 3 in 2017, which offered improved performance.
