this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
626 points (97.4% liked)

Technology

78923 readers
2450 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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).

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] clot27@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

China is better for world in every way possible so good.

[–] Woht24@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago
[–] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 16 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Oil is the longest word he can spell without spellcheck.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

He managed to spell enigma pretty well.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

Yes, China has very purposefully put itself at the forefront of the first technological revolution of the 21st century and done this at multiple levels (solar panel production, battery tech, EVs)

Meanwhile the American elites have decided that 19th century technology is were they want to be. Well, that and dead ending killing the country's lead in the Tech revolution by going down a branch with no future in the form of LLMs and making everybody lose trust in keeping their data in anything owned by American companies.

And, of course, the crooked politicians here in Europe are actually following America more than China in this.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 hours ago

And, of course, the crooked politicians here in Europe are actually following America more than China in this.

That is much less the case then it might appear. Out of the Top10 largest EV makers three are European(Volkswagen, BMW and Stellantis). When you look at wind, Europe has a few of the largest companies in the world. Europe is also basically the only place even attempting to compete with China in batteries, since Trump cut US support for that industry. There are plenty of more niche industries as well, in which Europe has some very strong companies.

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 12 points 9 hours ago (3 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.

[–] clot27@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

Russia has alot of gas

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 17 points 8 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.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 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.

[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 4 points 3 hours ago
[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours 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.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›