Biden Tees Up a Supply-Chain Rethink With Challenge to China’s EVs
The US should band together with allies to raise standards for how minerals are mined and processed, an energy security advocacy group argues.
Brine ponds and processing areas of a lithium mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Photographer: Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images
Seven months after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the magnitude of the challenge it will be for the US to loosen China’s grip on the electric vehicle supply chain — a key objective of the legislation — is coming into sharper relief.
Ford, the top US car producer, confirmed last month that it will tap technology from China’s battery-making behemoth CATL for a $3.5 billion plant it’s building in Michigan. Tesla is expecting the base version of its cheapest car, the Model 3, to lose the entirety of the $7,500 tax credit it’s been eligible for because its cells come from China. And barring big surprises later this week, many other EVs currently qualifying for credits will be eligible for $3,750 incentives, at most, after the Treasury Department finalizes content requirements that have been the subject of heated debate and frantic lobbying.