Software Over Steel: How Vimag Labs is Coding the Future of EV Motors
Software Over Steel: How Vimag Labs is Coding the Future of EV Motors For years, the electric vehicle revolution has carried a dirty little secret: it heavily relies on rare-earth permanent magnets. The mining and refining of these minerals—like neodymium and dysprosium—is environmentally harsh and tightly bottlenecked by a near-total global monopoly. Automakers have long tried to build magnet-free alternatives, but the trade-offs were harsh: heavy, inefficient induction motors or clunky, less powerful setups. Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup Vimag Labs just rewrote the rules. With their newly patented Virtual Magnet Synchronous Motor (VMSM) platform, they are proving that the next generation of clean propulsion isn’t written in stone—it’s written in code. The Secret: Software-Defined Magnetic Fields Traditional EV motors rely on fixed, physical magnets embedded in the rotor. Vimag Labs has completely removed these magnets. In their place sits a rugged steel structure wrapp...