This year’s Industrial Vehicle Technology (iVT) Expo will feature the debut of an innovative off-highway electrification solution: an air-cooled, rare-earth-free electric drive system offered as a fully matched, drop-in package for the European market.
Developed by Advanced Electric Machines (AEM), the system brings together the company’s HDRM 150 motor and a matched air-cooled inverter as an integrated unit operating at up to 700V with a peak motor output exceeding 30kW. It will be shown in public for the first time at the expo in Cologne on June 10 & 11.
Conventional electric drivetrains typically require liquid cooling for both motor and inverter – thermal management systems that add weight, plumbing, maintenance requirements and potential points of failure. By matching the air-cooled H10B inverter from Emsiso to the air-cooled HDRM 150, AEM has eliminated that infrastructure. The result is a drivetrain that is simpler to integrate and significantly easier to service in the field, with no coolant circuits to maintain, no pumps to fail and no additional packaging constraints for OEM engineers to work around.
The HDRM 150 uses a rare-earth-free motor architecture. Unlike permanent magnet motors, which typically rely on materials such as neodymium and dysprosium, the design avoids the use of rare earth elements. This can help reduce dependence on supply chains that are subject to geographic concentration and market volatility. As a result, the system aims to address both supply chain resilience and drivetrain simplification in off-highway electrification applications.
The system is designed for straightforward integration into existing platforms. OEM and Tier 1 engineers receive a validated motor and inverter combination rather than individual components that require separate integration and calibration work.
James Widmer, the CEO of Advanced Electric Machines, explained, “Permanent magnet motors deliver excellent performance, but they come with a supply chain attached that is neither stable nor secure. The HDRM 150 removes that dependency entirely and does so without asking OEMs to accept a performance compromise or a complex integration. Pairing it with a matched air-cooled inverter means we can offer something the market hasn’t seen before: a complete, drop-in rare-earth-free electric drive system that is simpler, more resilient and ready to work.”
AEM is exhibiting at iVT Expo 2026, June 10 & 11, on Booth 1020 in Hall 1 at Köln Messe. Click here to register for your FREE expo pass
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