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Modal Motors

Component Supplier

Manufacturer

Detroit, Michigan maker founded 2024 of rare-earth-free transverse flux motors; its 130 g OR3627-900kV drone motor ships from Q4 2026.

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Company Overview

Modal Motors, Inc. is an American electric motor manufacturer that designs and builds motors and generators without depending on Chinese rare-earth supply chains. The company was spun off in 2024 from Veolectra Inc., a product development firm in Farmington Hills, Michigan, to commercialize a patent-pending motor technology, and its website footer gives Detroit, Michigan as its location, where production is being ramped up. Michael Van Steenburg is founder and chief executive; Ebru Van Steenburg is listed as a co-founder.

The technical basis is a Transverse Flux Motor (TFM) architecture. According to the company, the design is yokeless and does not need back irons behind the magnets, which it identifies as a major loss source in conventional machines, and it can be built with no permanent magnets or with aluminum instead of copper windings. Motors are offered in two magnet configurations: BLUELINE, which uses non-rare-earth magnets such as iron nitride (FeN) from Niron Magnetics, and REDLINE, which uses samarium-iron-nitride (SmFeN) and other rare-earth material sourced from the United States and allied countries. The company states that the TFM design has been third-party validated against rare-earth incumbents on torque density, efficiency and mass, and that each motor is manufactured and assembled in a single fully automated robotic cell with a domestic supply chain for all motor components. It cites more than 35 years of team experience in advanced technology and automotive engineering, 50 million US dollars of prior OEM motor research and development, and more than 25 issued patents.

The first commercial product is the Modular Motor family, aimed at weight-critical systems. Its first model, the OR3627-900kV, is a transverse-flux brushless DC propulsion motor for Group 2 unmanned aerial vehicles. It weighs 130 grams, measures under 42 mm in diameter, delivers up to 360 W peak power and reaches 9,000 rpm, with an optional software-enabled third phase for tuning the motor profile without hardware changes. Order books opened in June 2026, with first deliveries scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026 and high-volume fulfilment from the first quarter of 2027; the company positions it for defense drone programs that require supply-chain traceability. The same family is also marketed for pumps, fans and blowers, and sealed liquid-cooled versions are offered for underwater vehicles.

The second product, the Hybrid Enigma Drive, is a structural housing that uses magnetic gearing to merge combustion-engine, wind or water inputs with electric drive, with no gear-tooth contact, no lubrication and a magnetic slip function that acts as a torque fuse.

Beyond drones, the company describes its target markets as land, sea, air, robotics and data-center cooling, and its earlier announcements name hub motors and robotic actuators among its product directions. In November 2025 Modal Motors raised a 2 million US dollar seed round to move from prototyping to production in Michigan. It exhibited in the Michigan Mobility Pavilion at CES 2025.