a fresh spin on electric hub motors.
The new startup is called Conifer and has developed its motors to be free of rare earth elements while using more abundant ferrite magnets, which the company says not only reduces costs but also limits supply chain risks. The startup also says that it offers higher efficiency and power than comparable options while maintaining half the size.
The company’s timing marks a volatile era of tariffs as well as a trade war with China. The tech has also attracted some serious financial attention. The motor and Confier’s approach to building it also helped in the development of a $20 million seed round from a host of deep tech investors, where we can find True Ventures, MaC Ventures, and MFV Partners.
Conifer also arrives on the scene as progress in electric motor development seems to be advancing rapidly. Even more so, companies such as Germany’s DeepDrive and Finland’s Dount Lab are now taking novel approaches to making electric motors more efficient, powerful, and affordable.
All of this comes at a time when batteries and which are typically accounted for as a bulk on the cost in an electric vehicle, are getting cheaper, yet not seeing the dramatic price decrease that was obvious a decade ago.
It is also worth mentioning that Confer’s initial target was a small mobility space with its hub motor. Going after the on off-road vehicles with two, three, and four wheels. The company also found interest from lawnmower and tractor makers and even HVAC companies. They already have a handful of global customers and plans and are looking to start shipping production motors later this year.
One of Coniffer’s co-founders, Ankit Somani, told TechCrunch that they are frustrated by the lack of investment and innovation in electric motors. “There was a lot of investment in the battery technology segment, all the way from cathodes, anodes, electrolytes — every piece of it. But not enough on the powertrain front,” Somani mentioned. “So we saw that as an opportunity from a market standpoint that, hey, there are not enough people who have thought enough about this from the ground up.”
He also talked about Conifer’s motors, saying that they are “one to two orders of magnitude” less complex than a car, triggering a smaller risk of this approach. “That’s the thesis we are moving forward with,” he reported. “We’ll start with one country where we’ll make this happen, and then we can take it to different places, depending on how local demands get.”.
Even more so, when it comes to selling motors, Somani said that he found success in setting aside a lot of those specifics. Saying that “You had a wheel before, which had a hub motor, now you get a new wheel, and just with the drop-in replacement, you get 10% range improvement. That’s it. And so all the cost and all the other conversations come afterwards,”.
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