Tag: Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Can China Export Its Way Out of Its Economic Slump?

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China dominates the global sale of solar panels and has caught up with Japan as the world’s largest car exporter. ‌It is even gaining in ‌the worldwide ‌sale of low-tech products like shoes. Now Beijing is weighing whether to deploy its considerable power as an exporter to try to stabilize an economy laboring under distinctly homegrown problems — a real estate crisis and weak spending by consumers still cautious after nearly three years of stringent pandemic restrictions. The decision could reverberate throughout the global economy and provoke a backlash among…

Global Oil Demand Is Set to Slow

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World demand for oil is likely to drop off sharply over the next five years, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday, as a shift to electric vehicles and other cleaner technologies brings growth in global oil use almost to a complete halt. “The shift to a clean energy economy is picking up pace, with a peak in global oil demand in sight before the end of this decade,” said Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, in a news release. The assessment, which foresees global gasoline use declining after 2026, will…

Europe Frets U.S. Battery Factory Subsidies Will Hurt, Not Help

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European leaders complained for years that the United States was not doing enough to fight climate change. Now that the Biden administration has devoted hundreds of billions of dollars to that cause, many Europeans are complaining that the United States is going about it the wrong way. That new critique is born of a deep fear in Germany, France, Britain and other European countries that Washington’s approach will hurt the allies it ought to be working with, luring away much of the new investments in electric car and battery factories not already…

Australia Tries to Break Its Dependence on China for Lithium Mining

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Deep in rural Western Australia, Pilbara Minerals’ vast processing plant looms above the red dirt, quivering as tons of a lithium ore slurry move through its pipes. The plant turns the ore from a nearby quarry into spodumene, a greenish crystalline powder that is about 6 percent lithium and sells for about $5,700 a ton. From there, the spodumene is shipped to China, where it is further refined so it can be used in the batteries that power goods like cellphones and electric cars. Australia mines about 53 percent of…

The U.S. Needs Minerals for Electric Cars. Everyone Else Wants Them Too.

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For decades, a group of the world’s biggest oil producers has held huge sway over the American economy and the popularity of U.S. presidents through its control of the global oil supply, with decisions by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries determining what U.S. consumers pay at the pump. As the world shifts to cleaner sources of energy, control over the materials needed to power that transition is still up for grabs. China currently dominates global processing of the critical minerals that are now in high demand to make…

Can the World Make an Electric Car Battery Without China?

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It is one of the defining competitions of our age: The countries that can make batteries for electric cars will reap decades of economic and geopolitical advantages. The only winner so far is China. Despite billions in Western investment, China is so far ahead — mining rare minerals, training engineers and building huge factories — that the rest of the world may take decades to catch up. Even by 2030, China will make more than twice as many batteries as every other country combined, according to estimates from Benchmark Minerals,…

China Orders Tesla to Recall 1.1 Million Vehicles Over Braking Risks

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China has ordered Tesla, the world’s dominant maker of electric vehicles, to recall 1.1 million vehicles, citing an issue with the acceleration and braking systems of certain models manufactured in China and abroad. China’s market regulator announced the decision after carrying out an investigation into a reported defect, according to a statement issued on Friday. The recalled vehicles include some imported Model S, Model X, Model 3 cars, as well as Chinese-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that were manufactured between Jan. 12, 2019 and April 24, 2023. The…

Battery Factories Are Driving Chinese Investment in Europe

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Battery makers from China are rapidly expanding in Europe, responding to a growing market for electric vehicles while bucking an overall contraction in Chinese investment on the continent. Mostly shunned from North America because of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which seeks to reduce American companies’ dependence on China’s supply chain, battery makers in China have instead focused on Europe, the world’s second-largest market for electric vehicles. They have become the main source of Chinese investment in the region, according to a study released on early Tuesday local time by…

Tesla’s Profit Dropped Sharply in First Quarter as It Cut Prices

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Tesla’s profit fell sharply in the first three months of the year after it cut the prices of its electric vehicles, the company said on Wednesday. The carmaker, led by Elon Musk, said it had made $2.5 billion in the first quarter, a drop from $3.7 billion in the last three months of last year and $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Tesla sold more electric cars in the United States last year than all its competitors combined. But its market share slipped as traditional carmakers like General…

In China, a Big Auto Show Returns to a Country That Has Gone Electric

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A hall showing off electric vehicles made by Nio, XPeng Motors, Zeekr and dozens of other Chinese companies was mobbed with visitors. An area nearby full of gasoline-powered cars by foreign brands barely got a second look by anyone. At the same event, Volkswagen, which vies with Toyota to be the world’s biggest seller of cars with combustion engines, issued a bold forecast: Within two years, half the cars sold in China, the world’s largest automobile market, will be electric, up from only 6 percent in 2020. The theme at…