Modal Motors is trying to cut China out of electric motors entirely; plus, PitPro’s first tire-changing robot goes live in Canada

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1:13That's Framer.com slash TC Startups. Rules and restrictions may apply. You know, lately, it seems like everyone is talking about bringing manufacturing back to the United States, especially when it comes to hard tech like drones and robotics. Michael Van Steenberg thinks he's ahead of the game. Van Steenberg spent the last decade building all kinds of electric motors in the U.S. and North America. And now he wants to do it again with his new startup, Modal Motors. This time, he wants to ditch rare-earth magnets entirely in a bid to further separate the U.S. from China's supply chain. As one of the founders in startup Battlefield 200, who will compete at TechCrunch Disrupt next month, he thinks it's an urgent pitch to make.

2:06He said China's already flexed its muscles a couple of times, referring to the country restricting access to rare-earth products. Now, there are other companies working on setting up electric motor manufacturing and supply chains in the U.S., but Van Steenberg argues they're doing it the wrong way by continuing to rely on rare earth magnets. Domestic supply of those materials is still years away, he said. Other people are reshoring, but they're basically knocking off Chinese motors and just doing it in the U.S. but they're hoping that the U.S. rare earth magnet system is going to get up to speed fast enough.

2:48It's going to still be a while before they can actually replace China. Modal Motors has two products that it's developing ahead of Disrupt. One is a small electric motor meant for drones that can also work in fans, blowers, and even actuators. It's designed to minimize mass while delivering maximum torque density and efficiency. That's according to the startup's website. The more radical design is what Modell refers to as the hybrid Enigma drive, a planar or flat electric motor that can fit in lower profile spaces. Van Steenberg is drawing on decades of experience in the automotive industry to develop these motors and get them customer-ready.

3:34But there's also an irony in the work Van Steenberg is doing to make Modal Motors products a China-free option. You see, in the late 1990s, he worked on a hybrid gas-electric drivetrain that China wanted to put in its so-called people's car. He said it's kind of comical, you know, thinking back on that experience and how much the world has changed. What has not changed is his outsider streak and strong conviction about doing things that are hard. He said, I always tell people that the clock started ticking 25 years ago, and in that whole time, I've watched a slow-motion train wreck as China's been going around the world grabbing mines, grabbing mineral rights, doing all these things, and slowly but surely monopolizing the entire rare-earth supply chain.

4:29Well, if you live in Canada, this year's set of snow tires might be installed by a robot. San Francisco startup PitPro Automation said Wednesday that it has installed its first automatic tire changing system at a tire shop in Calgary, Alberta. The startup says its robotic system, first revealed last year, could swap a full set of four tires in under 15 minutes. The first deployment is at a Cal Tire location, one of Canada's largest independent tire service chains. PitPro is one of myriad startups trying to disrupt different parts of the car ownership experience. While founder and CEO Jeremy Conrad told TechCrunch he ultimately wants to move into other kinds of automated maintenance, he thinks there's a big opportunity to build a business around tires in the near term.

5:23Changing tires is back-breaking work, he said, and tire shops are facing a major labor shortage. Even when shops can find people for the job, those workers often leave within a few months to a year. One shop manager was telling me they had to get special permission to pay more because a Panda Express opened across the street, and it took about half of their employees. PitPro's system is designed to slide right into existing maintenance bays. It features two boxy robots, each roughly the size of an oven, that use a mix of sensors and a robotic arm to locate and loosen the lug nuts. The robots store the lug nuts, pull off each wheel, and replace it with a new or rotated tire.

6:09PitPro has, to date, mostly talked-up plans to deploy its tire-changing robots with commercial fleets. It's still focused on that line of business. And the startup has former Ford Pro executive Ted Canis as an advisor. But Conrad believes tire chains are a major opportunity as well. Not just because of the labor shortage, but because of the constant demand for tire changes, especially in Canada, where switching to and from winter tires is a yearly occurrence for most car owners. Conrad said PitPro is focused on chains rather than smaller shops, since they tend to have standardized layouts and offer greater potential for wider deployment down the road.

6:53On top of that, mechanics can still use the bay that PitPro's tech occupies for other maintenance, increasing the chance that shops will be willing to try it out. The shift to real-world deployment has had its challenges, though. Tire shops tend to operate with the bay doors open, which exposes PitPro's robots to all kinds of dust and debris and weather. The startup had to account for all that, not only to keep the system robust, but also to make sure the sensors maintain an accurate view of the tires. Not everything is a challenge, though. during the interview with TechCrunch, Conrad shared a photo from the Calgary installation showing where the robots had been almost completely covered in an unexpected substance, dandelion seeds.

7:40He laughed when he talked about it, saying, you know, we looked into it and it's not going to be a problem for us, but it's just like, I had never thought about that we might need to deal with a dust cloud of dandelions. That's all for now. For the latest in tech news, go to TechCrunch.com.

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