It is the world’s biggest battery maker, it powers electric vehicles for Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW, and its EV technology is miles ahead of US offerings, say experts
The world’s two superpowers are so intricately linked that it’s hard to think of a pillar of the economy that hasn’t been strained by tensions between the US and China.
And the next frontline in the economic conflict may be the most fundamental yet: a fight for power itself.
A Chinese company that most people have never heard of is at the heart of the global race to store the clean energy needed to power the green transition in the US and the rest of the world.
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited, or CATL, is an energy storage specialist that is the world’s largest battery maker for electric vehicles (EVs). But despite the fact that the company controls nearly two-fifths of the world’s EV battery market – and has powered cars made by brands including Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW – it has long flown under the radar of US politics. Until now.
In February, Duke Energy, a US energy company that serves more than 8 million customers, said it was phasing out the use of CATL batteries. Duke said it would replace the CATL products with technology from a “domestic or allied nation supplier”.
I love the framing “…that has the US worried”, as if better battery technology isn’t a win for consumers everywhere, and the only people who are ‘worried’ are US battery manufacturers who haven’t kept up with technological advances, and the government who want to keep encouraging US companies to not use (objectively better) batteries from China.
It sounds like the ‘worry’ is “Our technology is years behind a political rival, and people are starting to notice”.
If this is actually a bad thing for me, as a consumer, and I’m mis-reading the situation, please feel free to educate me.
The worry is with supply chains. If an entire industry is reliant on a country who is antagonistic to outsiders, then that is an obvious cause for concern.
Exactly. And the amount of mining around the world that China owns is absurd. Pair that with 85%+ of the world’s material processing for batteries being in China, the rest of the world is in a situation where essentially all batteries will have to go through China
I’m actually hoping new battery tech kills this off. My hope is aluminium batteries, they are at the point where they are making batteries on a small scale so production isn’t that far off.
But aluminium has all the pros over lithium, higher storage in weight and volume, faster to charge, safer and made from the most abundant material in the ground.
Also perovskite might similarly come online soon and could kill of silicone panels.
We can only hope!
I get what you are saying but let’s not pretend for a moment China wasn’t stealing battery tech, wasn’t only allowing inferer batteries from China instead of abroad, wasn’t manipulating markets, isn’t using it geopolitical power to force smaller poorer countries into deals that futher helps it’s manufacturing.
China has done loads of shady shit and the problem is the west let it happen to make money. Well the chickens are coming home to roost and the West needs to do things to even the playing field.
Why would USA be worried about that? There are no US EV manufacturer that uses their own battery tech, they use licensed technologies. Yes Tesla uses bigger batteries, that apparently is a technological problem of itself, but it’s still licensed Panasonic tech. The 4th largest.
These are the 10 biggest, and the biggest American battery maker is nr 8, Farasis Energy with 2% global marketshare. So it’s not like USA has a lot to lose in this segment.
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/18/top-battery-producers-in-the-world/
Edit:
The worry is apparently dependency on China, but there are alternatives, like LG and Samsung from South Korea and Panasonic from Japan. AND USA even has it’s own Farasis Energy. It’s not like China has a monopoly.
It’s kinda funny to see US lawmakers getting so offended and worried that China does to the US what the US has done to the rest of the world for the last couple decades waving its technological superiority.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Chinese company that most people have never heard of is at the heart of the global race to store the clean energy needed to power the green transition in the US and the rest of the world.
But despite the fact that the company controls nearly two-fifths of the world’s EV battery market – and has powered cars made by brands including Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW – it has long flown under the radar of US politics.
A deal between the two companies to build a factory in Michigan to produce low-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries for EVs using CATL technology has repeatedly been questioned by US lawmakers.
Last week, energy secretary Jennifer Granholm told a discussion panel: “We are very concerned about China bigfooting our industry in the United States even as we’re building up now this incredible backbone of manufacturing.”
But Granholm also acknowledged that “we need to understand that it is important for people to buy electric vehicles in an affordable fashion,” something that experts say is impossible in the current market without Chinese batteries.
Research recently published by Rhodium Group concluded that “Chinese EV and battery companies are increasingly stuck between a rock and a hard place” as they try to navigate their rising unpopularity in the US while Beijing pushes them to internationalise.
The original article contains 899 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Hold Congo tight and never lithi(u)m go
