Permanent magnet in the front and keeping induction in the back. They’re claiming a 10% range improvement on new cars without touching the battery capacity: The Longest-Range Electric Vehicle Now Goes Even Farther | Tesla (Model 3 and Priuses have always used permanent magnet motors.)
It typically does increase rare earth use (if I recall correctly) but Toyota has been working on reducing the amount of rare earth metals in their electric motors. See news release: Toyota develops new magnet for electric motors aiming to reduce use of critical rare-earth element by up to 50% | Toyota Canada
It increases them. The S and X actually had zero before this by using induction motors. At the time rare earth mineral supply was a concern, so the efficiency reduction for using induction was deemed acceptable as insurance against price increases for permanent, rare earth magnets. Mineral supply is no longer a concern, so the 3 went with a permanent magnet, and now the S and X will get one. An induction motor is used for the secondary axle for AWD, because it has less efficiency loss when not actively driving the wheels. Everyone basically has. One of the motors in the gen2 Volt used an iron magnet without any rare earth content. Rare earths make magnets stronger, but they do more for a motor or generator. As magnets heat up, their strength goes down. The rare earths counter the effects of heat. There was a posting here about a spoke magnet arrangement motor that allowed for fewer rare earth minerals to be used by improving the cooling of the magnets.
