this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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Trump Is Obsessed With Oil. But Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 23 hours ago by UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
151 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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).

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[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 13 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

It is a lot more complex than "Europe is actually following America more than China in this".

Europe have very limited lithium deposits compared to China. Europe is trying to be as self sustaining as possible, especially now that the US have shown themselves to be a highly unreliable partner.

So exchanging one dependency for another is a poor lateral move at best.

You can't just start digging up the entire ground and make car batteries out of all lithium you find.

European universities all over are researching alternative battery technology that doesn't rely as much on lithium.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

Yeah, well, there's no Oil in Europe either, so ICE cars are even worse for a self-sustaining Europe (at least Lithum is only consumed once for an EV car, whilst Oil is consumed all the time for ICE cars)

If Europe can constantly source Oil from abroad to keep ICE cars going, I'm sure it can also source (a far lower quantity of) Lithium from abroad to make cars that can then run on electric power produced right here in Europe.

Your entire "argument" is one big cherry picked excuse.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 40 minutes ago

Yeah, well, there’s no Oil in Europe either,

C'mon. I'm a dumb American, but even I know without looking it up about Norway's vast petroleum production as well as the North Sea petroleum platforms off the coast of Scotland.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 16 points 6 hours ago

None of that is true. There is lithium everywhere, Germany just found 45 million tonnes of it. People have been digging up the entire ground for oil for 200 years.

You can research all you want, but the periodic table is not changing, and Chinese R&D is decades ahead of the West.