Wait, the Bentley that builds enormously heavy luxury sportscars for rappers, athletes, and control freaks who don’t want anyone else driving their Rolls-Royce? Yes, THAT Bentley has just announced the launch of a 3-year study whose aim is the production of a fully integrated, free from rare-earth magnet e-axle powertrain that will support new electric vehicle architectures as well as the electrification of its current “legacy” platforms.

Electric cars are quieter, faster, and cleaner than conventional internal combustion cars. This is an objective sort of thing, not an opinion, which many CT readers already realize. Those facts are beyond debate, but some of the ingredients of today’s awesome electric cars are still fraught with controversy. That’s especially true of rare Earth elements (REEs), which are hard to mine in brutal conditions and typically pulled out of the Earth in environmentally destructive ways.

Read Full Story At cleantechnica.com >>