I like the way this conversation is heading...forced me to put...

I like the way this conversation is heading...forced me to put down the pen and do some reading...The Model S has no REE in the main engine..probably never has..BMW produced a REE free SUV 5 years ago..the consumption of rare earths is spread across so many industries its crazy.. I cannot however find a statistic out there that breaks it down. The DRE discoveries are most pertinent to the Permanent Magnet market, which according to https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/permanent-magnet-market-806.html is most heavily utilised by the Glass Fibre Permanent Magnet sector used in reinforcement technologies across bridges highways and general construction...who knew? In Asia, the fastest growing source of demand for permanent magnets...the main drivers of growth are consumer electronics, data management etc..so aside from usage in Wind Energy, Motor Trains, generators, Industrial Robotics, Medical Scanning and Military. There is expected to be continued growth in the range of applications.
Reading about alternatives to REE perms, in battery technology, magnetics, the more the merrier I say, keep the planet clean if you can...but nascent tech is not going to change the supply chain so fast the demand gap is going to be easily bridged. Yes Iron Nitride is the most powerful magnet in the world, but it's prone to generating ammonia and even becoming a fiery accelerant under heat or humidity stress. I'm sure there will be ways to counter that but its early days. They are trying to grow a super magnet by adjusting the crystalline structure of Boron and Nickel in a Lab in the UK to match the properties of material only available to us via asteroid remains..might take some time to bring to industrial scale.
What I would love to see is a recycling capability that reduced the need to pull more of the stuff out of the ground...we'll get to that eventually but not for 20-30 years until demand and recyclable quantities hit some kind of equilibrium.
Tea Time's over..everyone back on your heads.