The commenters saying that this is old news and that magnet-free brushless motors have existed for a long time miss the main point. ZF claims to have one that is competitive with traditional designs utilizing rare earth materials.

Even ten to fifteen years ago the effort German automakers put into saving a milligram Dysprosium here and there - not only in the drive motor but every electric motor in the vehicle - was insane. I'm out of automotive for a couple of years now, but I can only imagine that this pains must have increased dramatically.

Because of all this effort, a motor without rare earth metals would only have to be nearly as good as the competition to still be a huge deal.