Is A New US-China Trade War Brewing – Over Batteries? | Insight | Full Episode

Lithium has been called “White Gold”. It is a critical component of the future of power storage, and a prized possession in a potential trade war - a battle over batteries. Batteries will be the heart of the world's post-fossil-fuel future.

Right now, China dominates the battery market, from raw materials, to research, to manufacturing. Wary of Chinese supremacy, the US and EU want to break Beijing's grip on the battery market. Can they do it? And what impact will the brewing battery battle have on all of us?

00:00 Introduction
01:19 Rising demand for electric vehicles
04:12 How China left the world far behind in battery race
09:00 US’ Inflation Reduction Act challenges China's clean energy dominance
11:46 Heavy metal 'gold rush' in Australia and Indonesia
19:43 Darker side of nickel mining in Indonesia
26:22 China leads the race for EV battery patents
34:11 EU's anti-subsidy probe into Chinese EVs
37:02 How US, China rivalry provide opportunities for new EV, recycling firms
40:55 Could batteries become the next sector of the trade war?

===============
ABOUT THE SHOW: Insight investigates and analyses topical issues that impact Asia and the rest of the world.
==========================
#CNAInsider #CNAInsight #China #USA #Trade #Batteries

For more, SUBSCRIBE to CNA INSIDER!

Follow CNA INSIDER on:

[ldon]

It took China over 20 years to make the battery industry competitive. Not an easy job. Many companies died on the way and those survived are the best.

[damingchan]

When China burnt fossil fuel to run vehicles, the world complained China was polluting the world. When China refined Lithium to make EV batteries and EVs to keep its pollution down, the world worried China domination. The lesson is: WTF, do what’s right for your own people 😅

[CulturalXplorer]

They are saying China dominated batteries because of huge demand in china.

That means, US attempts to cripple China's semiconductor industry with sanctions will only backfire.
Because it is already causing a huge demand for domestic brands in china.

[cityofgardenerssg]

I just came back from a trip to Tianjin, China. The city air is great. The streets are quiet because almost all vehicles are electric. The electricity comes from wind.

[cityofgardenerssg]

I always feel that it is unfortunate that english language reports is always talking about global dominance and competition. China developed battery and other technology because China and Chinese needs the technologies for a better lifestyle, nothing to do with US/EU

[DanBurgaud]

5:30 Sun Tzu (Art of War) says "Fight where the Enemy are not."
Applied to car industry: "Do not compete in ICE cars where the competitor is strong; compete in EVs where the competitor is weak."

[hyuxion]

More competition is good, whatever happens, it is good for human race, it is better to compete on economy than on battlefield.

[Peizxcv]

No one is worrying about their processor, operating system, browser, social media, and messaging apps are all from one country. But if the battery is from China, oh no😱

[ed]

Your restriction means “national security”; Chinese restrictions means “economic cohesion”. Trade is mutual agreeable exchanges! If you think unfair, don’t trade! No other reasons!

[greggpon]

Batteries are the new oil. Except their control is not given by geography. It is given by supply chain management, technological excellence, technical investment and market size.

[zodiacfml]

At this rate, China will dominate vehicles and batteries by 2030. The EU, US, Japan are too slow because they want to protect the interest of the old, ageing companies of decades ago. I've seen passenger cars from China that are good at a cheap price. It is just a matter of time for Chinese companies to expand car sales in other countries

[BabarKhan-vfwt]

A super documentary without taking sided and telling it how it is 🌟🌟🌟🌟

[alenev]

In China the government rolled out red carpet to give preferential treatment for Tesla to build a Giga EV factory in Shanghai. The government removed all road blocks to allow Tesla to build a Giga Factory in less than a year while giving Tesla all the incentives and subsidies enjoyed by any other Chinese EV makers. This happened when China's EV Industry was relatively quite weak. But Beijing was not shying away from American competition. Today, half of esla's global EV revenue comes from the Shanghai Factory.

Now in the US, they are doing everything they can to block anything from China! Dsicounting the incredible amount of profit Tesla has made for the past 10 years from the support from China!

Where is the spirit of free market competition which is one of America's core values? The distinctly difference in behaviors of the two superpowers have not been lost in the eyes of the rest of the world. The US is showing classic signs of the decline of a once great country where free market capitalism roamed free. Now it is grabbing at the straw.

[johnnywalker]

It's awesome to watch the US desperately trying to keep up with China!

[darthvader]

Chinese manufacturers are the runaway leaders in batteries and EVs. Given the scale of production already achieved, it’s next to impossible for any other country to catch up.
The demise of the traditional mass market ICE vehicle manufacturers is already written on the wall

[summerchina]

It is not just about technology but ecosystem. China has built up the most complete manufacturing supply chain and ecosystem to design and build batteries and EVs. Go visit the modern Chinese factories and you would be shocked by how automated and digitalized they are. As a result, the Chinese will be able to produce goods that are cheaper, higher quality and also do that in a more flexible way.

[ALWH]

Lithium conversion process requires economy of scale to be efficient and profitable and it’s not environmental friendly, hence the reason why it moved to China, the dirty factory for the west. As China grows economy and no longer need to trade environment for income, there is a movement toward sodium ion battery which is more abundant, cheaper, longer life and environmentally friendlier than lithium. Both BYD and CATL have started producing sodium ion battery and BYD just rolls out Seagull, a small entry level EV, with sodium ion battery option. Dongfeng also pioneered similar offering. The importance of lithium may become like dependency on coal, decreases as technology advances.

[zhli]

There shouldn't be trade wars. Also, any war, once started can not be stopped easily. Trade is win-win voluntary, then why weaponize it with sanctions?

[carinatao]

Note: China has stopped all subsidies since Jan 2023, because the EV market is already mature and competitive enough (Fierce competition in domestic market cross dozens of brands).
The EU keeps targeting China about subsidies, which is not fair (cuz they have been doing more heavily subsidies 😂, check France)

[jedics]

I power my whole tiny house with a lfp pack the size of two cartons of beer, it only has 100wh per kilo of energy density but it is still amazing, 4 years later and I can get double that for the same weight and space for less money. Nearly double that density again is already available at the high end with even higher densities coming into mass production in the near future. With everything going on in the world being almost all bad energy storage and solar is one of the few very positive things to emerge.