What is inside a rare earth magnet in a wind turbine or an electric car motor
What is inside a rare earth magnet in a wind turbine or an electric car motor is an alloy dominated by a metal with no rare earth content at all. A permanent magnet, one that keeps its pull without an outside electric current, spins the generator inside most wind turbines and turns the motor inside most electric cars. A European Commission science for policy report gives the weight breakdown for the wind turbine case, 66% iron, 28.5% neodymium, 4.4% dysprosium and 1% boron, an alloy called neodymium iron boron. The same report says the alloy now spins about 76% of offshore wind turbines worldwide and turns 90% to 93% of electric vehicle motors, figures now several years old.
The 4 shares add to 99.9, a rounding gap in the source.
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| Iron | 66 |
| Neodymium | 28.5 |
| Dysprosium | 4.4 |
| Boron | 1 |
The size depends on the turbine design, not the metal
The Congressional Research Service states the magnet mass a wind turbine needs. A direct drive turbine, a design that spins the generator without a gearbox, needs about 0.65 metric tons of magnet material for every megawatt of capacity, a megawatt measuring how fast, not how much, power a turbine produces. A hybrid drive turbine, which pairs a smaller gearbox with a smaller magnet, needs about 0.2 metric tons for the same megawatt, about 3.25 times less, a ratio calculated for this article from those 2 figures. A single electric car motor needs far less, a magnet weighing a little under 3 kilograms.
A direct drive turbine needs about 3.25 times the magnet mass per megawatt that a hybrid drive turbine needs, a calculation for this article from the 2 numbers shown.
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| Direct drive | 0.65 |
| Hybrid drive | 0.2 |
One country controls almost the entire supply chain
The International Energy Agency reported in 2026 that China holds 60% of the world mining of the magnet specific rare earths, 91% of the refining that turns the mined ore into usable metal, and 94% of the manufacturing that turns that metal into a finished magnet, each stage more concentrated than the last. The United States Geological Survey says the United States mined more raw ore in 2025 than the year before, 51,000 metric tons against 45,500, yet its reliance on imports for the finished compounds and metals rose over the same year, from 53% to 67%. Reading both reports together explains why mining more ore at home did not reduce import dependence, because there is almost nowhere but China to send that ore for refining into magnet grade metal.
2024 data. The share held by China rises at every later stage of the supply chain, from ore in the ground to a finished magnet.
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| Mining magnet rare earths | 60 |
| Refining magnet rare earths | 91 |
| Manufacturing sintered magnets | 94 |
China tightened its grip in 2025, then eased it
China added export controls on several of these elements in April 2025, expanded them in October, then suspended the October round for 1 year in November, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reports. Chinese magnet exports fell by about three quarters in the 2 months after the first round. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on October 30, 2025 to suspend the restrictions for 1 year.
All of the rare earth has been settled.
Donald Trump, President of the United States, speaking after his October 30, 2025 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at which the 2 agreed to suspend China export restrictions for 1 year. Source 5.
The price of neodymium oxide, the raw material behind the magnet, fell to 69 dollars per kilogram in 2025, down from 134 dollars in 2022, even as the supply behind it stayed concentrated in that 1 country. For anyone choosing a heat pump, an electric car or a home appliance built around a motor like this, the price and the politics behind that 1 country are part of the cost of the product, not a separate story.