Chinese technology companies are paving the way for a world that will be powered by electric motors rather than gas-guzzling engines. It is a decisively 21st-century approach not just to solve its own energy problems, but also to sell batteries and other electric products to everyone else. Canada is its newest buyer of EVs; in a rebuke of Mr. Trump, its prime minister, Mark Carney, lowered tariffs on the cars as part of a new trade deal.
Though Americans have been slow to embrace electric vehicles, Chinese households have learned to love them. In 2025, 54 percent of new cars sold in China were either battery-powered or plug-in hybrids. That is a big reason that the country’s oil consumption is on track to peak in 2027, according to forecasts from the International Energy Agency. And Chinese E.V makers are setting records — whether it’s BYD’s sales (besting Tesla by battery-powered vehicles sold for the first time last year) or Xiaomi’s speed (its cars are setting records at major racetracks like Nürburgring in Germany).
It’s like he wakes up every morning and asks himself “What can I do to make sure China owns the 21st century?”
They’re bribing him and his daughter to do so.
Bribery is how the US political system has operated for the bulk of the country’s history
But, for the most part, the bribery was intended to increase private profits. Rarely have we seen industry bribe the feds in an act of self-sabotage.
Yeah, conservatives don’t think of the future except through the lens of the present. They can’t imagine a world with EVs and batteries because they have oil brains. They are looking for solutions to problems with an oil first mindset. Sunk cost is everything.
That’s in part because they see their future through the lens of them oppressing objective developments, so EVs and batteries will never happen in that fantasy. They took a liking to AI for example despite it being relatively new development purely because it helped them in that department. They will only embrace something if it’s ‘their’ idea, and they have a lot of shitty ideas.
Beyond EVs, the much cheaper sodium-ion battery is entering mass production in China. We can already buy B-grade cells on AliExpress. This will have implications for all sorts of use cases that could use batteries but don’t due to cost.
EVs alone have major grid balancing potential. You can get home batteries for under $100/kwh in US right now, and cost of EV batteries have always been lower due to bulk/contract purchases. At $100/kwh, even from grid TOU use power, you can time shift profitably for just 1c/kwh before financing costs, but before resilience/backup benefits from batteries.
Solar is by far the cheapest way to charge those batteries, where home solar without monopoly persecution from utilities, as in Australia, can be extra affordable. But even before abundant solar is permitted in our countries, or even net metering, simply having TOU rates that are cheap at night allows for enough arbitrage for when TOU rates are high. Where some EVs are $300/kwh to $500/kwh for the entire car, TOU rates can allow for arbitrage that pays for whole car.
What sorts of batteries are around that price per kwh? Genuinely curious, been thinking about adding batteries but can’t justify the costs I’ve seen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bShGUPU3TQ $120/kwh. There are amazon listings for 20kwh in rack batteries for under $3000. It does take DIY (no soldering kits) to get to $100/kwh. searching youtube for projects/options reviews, and especially the linked author is recommended if you’re interested.
Amazing, thank you. My new obsessive project has been lined up
He’s a corrupt moron.
One is an energy and material source. The other is neither and is simply storage.
Why would you compare them?
Because batteries are a point of tension in the adoption of some electricity-centric techs. Electricity production can be done in many different ways already (unless you suddenly decide to 100x the demand for shit and giggles), but a lot of applications requires batteries, which makes them some sort of choke point for adoption. Making them better, more accessible, cheaper, more friendly on the environment ease that.
The comparison is also on one end of the world focusing on the dying down side of things, while the other end is (allegedly) looking forward.
That’s why they’re compared.
That’s nice. Now run a modern civilization of 10 billion (upcoming) with only electricity.
Yeah? That’s kinda the plan? Do you see a particular problem with a mostly renewable (to the scale of our species’ lifetime) source of energy, that can be implemented in various way to accommodate different situations, locations, and use, while trying to make things more efficient?
Because I don’t.
Wow.
Can other countries forgo their climate commitments and scale up coal productions to compete in manufacturing or only China?
Australia’s economy has been in a tailspin precisely because China hasn’t been buying enough coal.
Fortunately, India, Maylasia, and Indonesia have picked up the slack at the prodding of fossil fuel interests.
Not it hasnt. A small drop in exports to china isnt enough to send the austrialian economy into a tailspin. Chinese coal imports globally dropped only 9% last year (and domestic production increased to meet that deficit for all those thinking china isnt polluting the world). Keep in mind this 9% decrease comes after a record amount of coal imports in 2024.
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Not that Trump is right but, how will we charge said batteries…?
