Beijing will now require government licenses for any effort to transfer abroad the technologies crucial for producing inexpensive electric cars.
Beijing will now require government licenses for any effort to transfer abroad the technologies crucial for producing inexpensive electric cars.
Also the know-how to produce great batteries isn’t everywhere. Northvolt in Sweden went bankrupt because they couldn’t deliver what they promised — to produce batteries only from local materials. They couldn’t make the batteries without importing some of the things necessary for production from Asia (can’t remember what, exactly). They just never got out of the R&D phase and were always dependent on third parties to finish production batches.
Agreed, some of the more tech advance cities that I’ve been to in China runs on 90% electric vehicles bar a few diesel BMW’s and Mercs.
They are replacing their “cheap laborers” with scientists.
Raw materials are not secret technology. China is simply sitting on rare earth mines that run on human exploitation and environmental destruction like a hoarding dragon. China couldn‘t build an electric battery in line with Sweden‘s regulations with Swedish resources either.
It wasn’t about access to raw materials, it was something about treating them or something. They couldn’t get it right, some detail in the production.
Edit:
— https://www.norran.se/nyheter/skelleftea/artikel/northvolts-problem-att-leverera-tvingas-kopa-material-fran-kina/rx40pnkl