What Is a Ferrite Permanent Magnet Motor?
A permanent magnet motor that uses ferrite magnets instead of rare earth materials — with no performance trade-off.
How It Works
A permanent magnet motor uses magnets embedded in or mounted on the rotor to create a magnetic field. This eliminates the need for rotor windings and reduces energy losses, resulting in higher efficiency than induction motors.
Most high-efficiency permanent magnet motors use neodymium magnets (a rare earth material) because of their high energy density. Ferrite magnets — made from iron oxide and strontium carbonate — have lower energy density but are far cheaper, more abundant, and free from supply chain risk.
A ferrite permanent magnet motor achieves high efficiency not by using stronger magnets, but through optimized electromagnetic design. EKMO uses a Surface Mounted Permanent Magnet (SMPM) topology where the motor geometry, winding configuration, and magnetic circuit are engineered to extract maximum performance from ferrite.
Ferrite vs Rare Earth Permanent Magnets
Neodymium magnets offer a remanence of approximately 1.2–1.4 T, while ferrite magnets typically reach 0.4–0.45 T. This difference means conventional motor designs fall short of top efficiency classes when using ferrite.
EKMO's design overcomes this gap through electromagnetic optimization — achieving IE5+ efficiency with ferrite only. For a full technical comparison, see our ferrite vs neodymium analysis.
Applications
Ferrite permanent magnet motors are suitable for a wide range of industrial applications: industrial drives and pumps, marine and yacht propulsion, electric bus drivetrains, HVAC and industrial fan systems, and compressors. EKMO's designs cover the 37kW to 1MW power range in IEC standard housing, making them a drop-in replacement in existing installations.
Can Ferrite Motors Reach IE5+ Efficiency?
Yes. EKMO has demonstrated IE5+ efficiency using only ferrite magnets across the full 37kW–1MW range. This is achieved through advanced SMPM motor design, not through stronger magnets.
The motor designs use IEC housing with IC411 self-ventilation cooling, operate between 100 and 4500 RPM, and are available in shaft heights of 225, 250, 280, 315, and 355mm. The technology is available for licensing to motor manufacturers globally.
Understand how IE5 efficiency is defined and why it matters: IE5 Motor Efficiency — What It Means and How to Achieve It
Build IE5+ ferrite motors under license from EKMO.