If developing good permanent magnets that don’t need Nd isn’t feasible, another option is finding ways to avoid using permanent magnets.
At the place I used to work, some of my colleagues had a cool R&D project to develop practical electrostatic motors. (Basically, instead of the torque of a magnet in a magnetic field, you use the torque of an electret in an electric field.) Here’s a press release from 2021, associated with this patent getting published. I can’t immediately find anything more recent … I hope their project hasn’t died since then, it was really a lovely design.
At the place I used to work, some of my colleagues had a cool R&D project to develop practical electrostatic motors. (Basically, instead of the torque of a magnet in a magnetic field, you use the torque of an electret in an electric field.) Here’s a press release from 2021, associated with this patent getting published. I can’t immediately find anything more recent … I hope their project hasn’t died since then, it was really a lovely design.