China is winning the NEV look like their bet is paying off and contradict the western theology that government intervention will only lead to waste and misallocation of resource. In new technology NEV government inducement(subsidy) in necessary leave on its own they just stay the same GM just announce they will pass out the combustion engine in 2035. Most of the supply chain in NEV is sourced from China since battery is the main component using rare earth and China is the biggest supplier of rare earth metal. CALT based in Ningde, Fujian is the most advance battery maker
Driverless Robot Taxi
G.M.’s Electric Car Push Could Put China in the Driver’s Seat
With government support and lavish subsidies, Chinese companies have come to dominate the market for batteries, motors and other essentials Detroit may need for its new fleets.
All-electric cars parked in a lot operated by General Motors Co and its joint-venture partners in Liuzhou, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China.Credit...Aly Song/Reuters
By
SHANGHAI — The business of making cars has reached a critical juncture — and it looks as if China is in the driver’s seat.
- Jan. 29, 2021, 12:15 p.m. ET
General Motors’s surprise announcement on Thursday that it aspires to eliminate gasoline and diesel cars from its fleet and embrace electric cars follows a road map successfully drawn by Beijing. To get there, G.M., the Detroit stalwart and symbol of American industrial might, may have no choice but to embrace car and battery technologies in which Chinese companies play leading roles.
Even when setting the time frame, G.M. seems to be matching Beijing’s speed. Just three months ago, Chinese policymakers ordered that most vehicles sold in China must be electric by 2035.
“When it comes to global automakers’ electric vehicle plans, all roads lead back to Beijing,” said Michael Dunne, a former president of G.M.’s Indonesia operations.
Precisely how G.M. will shift its industrial capacity isn’t entirely clear, and the company declined on Friday to comment on what influence Beijing’s policies may have had in its planning. It didn’t mention China in its announcement on Thursday.
It didn’t have to. China has the market clout and the steadiness of regulatory policy to influence automotive decisions made from Detroit to Tokyo to Wolfsburg, Germany.
China already is by far the world’s largest car market, accounting for a third of global sales. It is bigger than the American and Japanese auto markets combined. G.M. and Volkswagen now both sell more cars through joint ventures in China than in their home markets.
But China’s sway also extends to the business of making electric cars. Worried about its own pollution problems and keen to stay competitive in the technologies of the future, Beijing has long lavished subsidies on its electric car industry. During the global financial crisis a dozen years ago, China was already offering its taxi fleets and local government agencies up to $8,800 per car to choose electric models.
Today, China is the leading maker of big battery packs for electric cars, producing considerably more than the rest of the world combined. Chinese regulations required until a year ago the use of Chinese battery suppliers, instead of their mostly Japanese and South Korean rivals, for electric cars sold with Chinese subsidies. That forced multinationals to place huge orders with CATL, the main Chinese producer.
Chinese companies dominate the world’s production of electric motors. China has even gained control of much of the world’s production of key raw materials needed for electric cars, including lithium, cobalt and minerals known as rare earth metals.
Major global automakers are already developing electric cars in China. Daimler and Toyota have jumped into extensive joint ventures with Chinese manufacturers to build electric cars. Ford Motor announced on Thursday that its new Ford Mustang Mach-E, the most head-turning car at the Beijing auto show last autumn, will be manufactured in China as well as Mexico.
The world’s shift to electric cars, “is based on the Chinese technological road map,” said Yunshi Wang, the director of the China Center for Energy and Transportation at the University of California, Davis.
China is not trying to set global standards just for electric cars. It is also moving quickly to commercialize large numbers of self-driving cars, a technology developed in California. China is also trying to take the lead on how cars connect to the internet, through its planned nationwide deployment of 5G mobile communications.
Chinese government mandates require widespread installation of these technologies by 2025. That has pushed Chinese and Western companies alike to adapt. (cont click the link)
The comments are very telling. Democrat supporters pointing fingers at the Republican Party, Republican supporters blaming Democrats. And of course somehow China is blamed for America's slow adoption of electric cars. Can't they take some responsibility? It's not the other party's fault for things going wrong - it's also your fault.
