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).

  • Clot@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

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

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    12 hours ago

    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
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      3 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
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      11 hours ago

      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.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        10 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.

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        8 hours ago

        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.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 hours ago

        Well informed people knew that it wasn’t safe already for quite a while.

        Most people did not, most companies did not, most public institutions either did not or could make believed they did not.

        That’s changing (as are lots of other things) because Trump is being far more loud about how Europe is an adversary of America than previous administrations (it was too for Democrats, though only on business and trade terms)

        There was quite a lot of fighting against treating America as a safe haven for the data of Europeans from people in the know in Tech and IT Security in Europe but we lost, but now crooked politicians can’t make believe America or American companies are safe for the data of Europeans anymore.

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    23 hours ago

    I’d sooner buy a Chinese EV than a Tesla, but the orange gameshow host running my country says I can’t.

    • 3abas@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Because Biden said you could? He’s the one that doubled tariffs on Chinese EVs from 50% to 100%. Biden also gave the EV tax credit which was essentially a subsidy to Tesla, which Trump ended.

      Note that I’m not defending Trump, but simply noting that the US was heading in his direction. He’s a symptom of advanced disease, but you don’t get to blame him all the shitty things all US presidents ever did. He’s a raging tumor, but the cancer was spreading already.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Because Biden said you could? He’s the one that doubled tariffs on Chinese EVs from 50% to 100%. Biden also gave the EV tax credit which was essentially a subsidy to Tesla, which Trump ended.

        I don’t fault Biden for adding a tariff on Chinese EVs to temporarily protect the American auto manufacturing envornment. We just have too many jobs tied to the domestic production of cars. The immediate loss of those jobs would plunge the USA into deep recession. It looked like this was working too with many American companies adapting and coming out with EVs.

        However, most of those American EVs have been scaled back or canceled. Further, with the exception of the Chevy Bolt no domestic maker produced an affordable EV. Since American companies decided they don’t want to play in EVs anymore, I fully support removing the tariff and letting Chinese EVs into the USA. It looks like that will be the only thing that will force American car companies to compete. This situation closely mirrors the 1970s where Japan introduced small, reliable, fuel efficent cars, and affordable cars at a time when gasoline was crazy expensive.

        It looks like this time around it will be the Chinese that teach the American auto market to adapt instead.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        10 hours ago

        Biden increased tariffs…AND invested heavily in battery plants in the US. Trump killed that. Biden’s tariffs were because the Chinese government is dumping in the US to undermine the car industry.

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          15 hours ago

          Agreed. Not sure what those downvotes are for. I saw this coming 20 years ago. Especially with lobbying as out of control as it has been. If Trump dropped dead now, we’d still have a catastrophe.

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        18 hours ago

        You’re absolutely right. Trump is a lightning rod for rage, but most of what the US is doing is bipartisan. It’s a huge problem that so many people harbor false hope for the controlled opposition.

        • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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          13 hours ago

          the controlled opposition.

          The strongly worded letters opposition?
          That’s a joke, right?

        • 3abas@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          People downvoting facts simply because they contradict their own stated position tells so much. They want cheap Chinese EVs but can’t accept that what they defended as protecting American companies (Biden’s tariffs) and making EVs more affordable for Americans (Biden’s EV tax credit) are the reasons they can’t have cheap Chinese EVs.

          Instead of reflecting on the progranda they’ve been consuming, they downvote and move on to repeat the same nonsense later. I’m relieved they didn’t call me a tankie Russian bot this time for suggesting Biden wasn’t an angel.

          • melfie@lemy.lol
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            9 hours ago

            Yeah, people responding to my original comment assume I’d prefer Jim Crow Joe. Trump has a more abrasive personality that a lot of people love to hate, but obviously they’re both geriatric puppets to distract everyone while the billionaire cabal continues business as usual. Trump is primarily an entertainer and is certainly the more engaging distraction.

          • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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            10 hours ago

            JFC…are people this dumb? The first taste is free buddy, these TEMU EVs are being sold below cost just to attack US industry. BYD has a $38B debt propped up by the Chinese government.

            You geniuses forgot about the Biden investment in US battery plants.

            • 3abas@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              You’re mixing a few real dynamics with a lot of propaganda framing.

              Yes, China uses industrial policy and subsidized credit, and yes, firms can price aggressively to gain market share. But pretending the U.S. is some pure “market” victim is absurd when it literally did the same thing via public-credit industrial policy. The Biden-era battery buildout you cite is a perfect example: the public underwrites corporate risk, and when demand softens the companies pause projects, restructure deals, and keep the upside private. Ford/SK On’s “big national strategy” became delays, a JV breakup, and loan restructuring; Stellantis/Samsung is ramping cautiously amid volatility. That isn’t “saving U.S. industry,” it’s socializing risk and then calling it patriotism.

              Also, “TEMU EVs” is just culture-war branding. The issue isn’t that consumers are “dumb,” it’s that working people are getting squeezed, and cheaper cars matter when wages lag and housing/healthcare eat the paycheck. If you want to defend tariffs or targeted restrictions, make the case honestly on labor, climate, and supply-chain resilience, not xenophobic moral panic.

              And the funniest part is you invoke BYD debt like it’s uniquely scandalous while ignoring the mountain of subsidies, tax abatements, and cheap financing that props up U.S. automakers and battery JVs. If you’re worried about state-backed capital distorting markets, congratulations: you’re arguing against capitalism as it actually exists, not for it.

              If we’re going to spend public money on industrial capacity, attach enforceable labor standards, community guarantees, and public equity or governance rights. Otherwise it’s a corporate welfare program with a flag taped to it.

            • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              I just read an article stating that Ford lost 36k on every EV they sold in 2023… In a market where they had government protection from Chinese EVs.

              • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                I just read an article stating that Ford lost 36k on every EV they sold in 2023…

                Ford, and other American auto makers, were asleep at the wheel when EVs were starting to take off. Ford and GM doubled down on selling pickups and big SUVs which had good margins. Instead of investing in R&D to make a solid product they were caught unprepared and had to throw everything at the wall to see what stuck with their first EVs. Yes, they were able to bring them to market fairly quickly (good), but at the cost of efficient of the product and the production method.

                This means for every EV they make, they do it expensively where they wouldn’t need to if they improved their designs and production methods.

            • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zip
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              9 hours ago

              Wrong, they are selling cheap to dismount Mercedes, Porsche and BMW in Europe, and it’s working. Once they dump on those 3 companies they will raise the prices to be profitable, but Europe will already have no options. Just wait and see. Chinese EVs are all over Germany now, and it’s only going to increase.

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        10 hours ago

        Yeah, I liked Jim Crow Joe even less than orange gameshow host. Some of his policies had direct negative effects on my life. Then the election came around and the democrats decided we don’t get a primary at all this time, so we ended up with a choice between an ignorant gameshow host who somehow fancies himself an independent thinker and a cackling hen who puts on no such airs, both of whom are completely loyal to the international billionaire cabal.

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        10 hours ago

        I assume you’re referring to the fact that Tesla has a Shanghai factory and is exporting Teslas made there to Canada.

        • NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk
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          10 hours ago

          I’m guessing so too as I read (albeit I don’t recall where so could have been an unreliable source) that its the other way around - Tesla utilise BYD for some of their cars destined for the Chinese market

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      18 hours ago

      I want a fucking Huawei P70. The 10x camera on that thing can practically take stabilized macro photos from a 5 m distance. But Ursula says Orange Man will spank her if she allows competition to Apple and Google.

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        9 hours ago

        I wouldn’t buy that even if it wasn’t banned, locked bootloader and spyware preinstalled at all levels

    • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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      22 hours ago

      I can hold out on not buying a new car a hell of a lot longer than the American economy can survive under a tariff regime.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        19 hours ago

        US is the same as China now. Well that’s not true, US foreign policy is way more batshit insane than China’s. If you can even call it a foreign policy… it seems to me it’s just the whims of a deranged old child molester surrounded by fucking Nazis.

        And China is further away and there’s pretty much zero probability China will invade my country. With the US, who knows? Kinda stupid to send money to a country I may have to be fighting against within a year.

        • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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          12 hours ago

          Whenever I hear news of China, they built a new electric railway, invented something new, or made massive tech progress.

          Whenever I hear of USA on the other hand…

          …they are still following the philosoohy of the people who explicitly said they want the human race extinct.

        • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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          12 hours ago

          there’s pretty much zero probability China will invade my country.

          Boots on the ground invasion? Sure, not likely.
          But that’s because China long ago realized the wars to be fought in the 21st century are economic… and they’re way ahead.

      • Auth@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Trump is following in china’s footsteps. His longterm plan will fail because he is not authoritarian enough to retain power. If the CCP were in his shoes they’d have murdered millions of americans to ideologically cleanse the country.

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      20 hours ago

      For Australians (alas, big Teska supporters) and much of the world they are all made in China anyway.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It’s like he wakes up every morning and asks himself “What can I do to make sure China owns the 21st century?”

    • Mantzy81@aussie.zone
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      1 day ago

      Thats because he’s stuck in the 80s. It’s common for people with dementia to fall back to a time they thought was good and for him, it was the 80s when oil was king.

      • ceenote@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Frankly you’re giving him too much credit. If oil is really still king it won’t need his help. He might be able to claim he was just being fair if he had only removed subsidies, but he was and still is actively sabotaging adoption of electric vehicles, like by terminating the USPS contract to buy all those electric mail trucks or removing already installed EV chargers at federal sites.

        • pipi1234@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Not sure about that.

          Nuclear energy is safer than ever.

          We even have small nuclear reactors that can use spent fuel from the larger ones, thus solving in part the disposal of it.

          Furthermore, significant advances have been achieved on fision power.

          Clinging to oil is like refusing to replace your horse with a car.

          • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf
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            21 hours ago

            We even have small nuclear reactors that can use spent fuel from the larger ones, thus solving in part the disposal of it.

            Do we? Last I heard there aren’t any in service.

            Furthermore, significant advances have been achieved on fision power.

            We’ll need a hell of a lot more advances before fusion is even close to powering a grid.

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            22 hours ago

            When you have plug-in hybrid tanks or nuclear powered strategic bombers oil will see a diminish in it’s strategic relevance as a resource.

            Fusion is nowhere near being in industrial use or being profitable. In the future, maybe, pending more breakthroughs.

            Whether nuclear is a good idea to cling to going forward or not, it takes time to deploy. Those small reactors don’t just come off a shelf, ready to be turned on. Oil, however, can generate power TODAY, anywhere you can ship it.

            The question isn’t whether it’s a good idea to keep burning oil – it definitely isn’t – the question is whether oil is still a hugely important energy commodity and the answer is a resounding yes. Notably, the article mentions that China’s oil use hasn’t even peaked yet. China does not use a small amount of oil.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              the question is whether oil is still a hugely important energy commodity and the answer is a resounding yes

              This is a HUGE reason to push for progress. Oil is critical to so much of modern life and we have no substitutes for all too much of it. We need more progress where we do have options (eg. EVs) so we can start growing out of our dependency before it becomes a crisis

              • redditmademedoit@piefed.zip
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                6 hours ago

                I think we should also focus on using less energy overall – e.g. replace short to medium persinal car trips with walking, bicycles and public transport, medium to long travel with trains, eliminating unnecessary travel that can’t be accommodated by those modes of transport. Environmental solutions like replacing fossil fuel powered cars with emissions free, but equally dangerous and still inefficient EVs for personal use will keep us burning oil even longer by tying up investments in highways and hostile, car based infrastructure.

                Things like rethinking infrastructure, labor, economy and housing would have been more achievable and, for most, felt more like progressing towards a better future than straighup sci-fi level efforts to continue the status quo without as much oil. But it’s the latter we get, they’re putting carbon capture machines on Norwegian oil rigs as we speak.

                • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                  6 hours ago

                  For sure we should reduce overall travel.

                  • To the extent people still work from home: we do. On days when I work from home I generally don’t use a motor vehicle for anything
                  • to the extent we order online, we do. I rarely goto stores besides the grocery. Sorry retailers and local shopping advocates but a dedicated delivery vehicle is more efficient that you taking yours
                  • I’ve seen gradual progress in train buildout from the 2022 infrastructure bill. It’s very slow, piecemeal, not dramatic but there are more transit options
        • Mantzy81@aussie.zone
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          22 hours ago

          We are long past peak oil. Look I’m not saying we’re not going to need oil long into the future and its use for aviation is currently unsurpassed but the argument is our reliance on oil is waning as newer technologies have come into play, especially in the power generation and automotive sectors. Chemical and plastic production is still vital and that can’t be done without oil. We’re not getting away from using it for a long tine but it’s past it’s peak.

          What Dumpy forgets is supply and demand (because he’s one of the worst business people ever) and releasing more oil into the market from his imperialist acquisitions means a drop in value - even the oil execs were apprehensive as to whether the takeover of Venezuela and being told they need to fix up their processing was a good thing as they don’t want the market flooded as that will cause the cost of oil to plummet.

          • redditmademedoit@piefed.zip
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            22 hours ago

            As far as I’m aware peak oil production has not been recognized to have happened yet.

            Over the last century, many predictions of peak oil timing have been made, often later proven incorrect due to increased extraction rates.[9] M. King Hubbert introduced comprehensive modeling of peak oil in a 1956 paper, predicting U.S. production would peak between 1965 and 1971; his global peak oil predictions were predictive through the 1990s and 2000s but eventually were deemed premature due to improved drilling technology.[10] Current forecasts for the year of peak oil range from 2028 to 2050.[11] These estimates depend on future economic trends, technological advances, and efforts to mitigate climate change.[8][12][13] Peak oil, Wikipedia

            It is still assumed that global oil consumption scales with economic growth and under 2025 consumption increased.

            Global liquid fuels consumption increased by an estimated 1.2 million b/d in 2025 and is forecast to increase by 1.1 million b/d in 2026 and 1.3 million b/d in 2027. Consumption growth rises next year as global economic activity picks up pace. Based on forecasts from Oxford Economics, our forecast assumes global GDP will grow by 3.1% this year and 3.3% in 2027. Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA (U.S. government)

            • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              Consumption is still growing, but the ‘oil’ in Venezuela is just tar, the ‘oil’ in the United States come from fracking. The days of sweet crude are behind us.

    • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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      24 hours ago

      This is one of those situations where the venn diagram of Trump’s handlers becomes a circle.

      You have the billionaire Oil executives that want to continue using all their existing infrastructure and wasy access to continue printing money like they do now. Meanwhile, those companies all see the writing on the wall and know it’s running out so they’re investing in or buying technologies and companies working on alternatives. They’re playing both sides because they’re not idiots.

      And then you have the manipulators like Putin (who we know Trump idolizes) with their goals of destroying American power across the board. Having America not only abandon new technologies but even propping up the old ones past when they should be phased out to focus on century-old priorities while the rest of the world continues to move on, helps that overall goal.

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        1 day ago

        Bribery is how the US political system has operated for the bulk of the country’s history

        But, for the most part, the bribery was intended to increase private profits. Rarely have we seen industry bribe the feds in an act of self-sabotage.

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    1 day ago

    Coal Brittain -> Petro Murica -> Electro China.

    It’s funny how China said years ago that was the plan and they’re doing it while nobody stopped them because of short term greed.

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          12 hours ago

          Europe just did a 180 on the commitment for no ICE cars to be sold from 2035 onwards under pressure of just a handful of big automakers.

          And when I say Europe, I actually mean crooked European politicians rather than the public in general.

          I mean, even if one puts the aside the whole strategical point of Europe delaying even more commiting to the first big tech revolution of the 21st century so that a handful of large automakers make a little bit more profit, there are actually lives as stake: fumes for diesel cars are estimated to kill more than 10,000 people a year in Europe.

          Corruption in politics is both killing people and fucking up our future prosperity.

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            10 hours ago

            I personally know people who cheered for the extension of ICE cars to be sold, so it’s not only “crooked politicians”, this is an actual sentiment among people.

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              8 hours ago

              Here in the US, the reasons people generally cheer for ICE vehicles boil down to how expensive EVs are here. Legacy manufacturers sell them only in premium trims and dealers tack on excessive profit to help discourage them - they truly are not affordable here.

              They don’t seem to understand this is a choice by legacy manufacturers, combined with protectionism bought by those same manufacturers.

              I suppose there’s a range concern but I don’t see how that has any validity. As people have more direct experience, that should mostly disappear. While there are never enough chargers, most of the population has high speed charging convenient to them and most homeowners can charge at home.

            • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              8 hours ago

              In my experience, how many people think like that really depends on the country of Europe: my own native Portugal is far more shit when it comes to Environmentalism in general - especially around cars as the country has a very 1980s mindset on them and a car is still seen as symbol of status - whilst for example The Netherlands is almost the the opposite.

        • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
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          24 hours ago

          Yeah, it means giving up the current cash cow and they’ll only do that when it’s visibly dying. And then the competition has too much of a headed start so it’s already to late.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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          22 hours ago

          Tesla is definitely “trying” by number of units produced. Volkswagen is also taking EVs very seriously, at least by current and projected manufacturing numbers.

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            6 hours ago

            Lol Volkswagen, the company that actively rigged diesel cars to pass the tests… ? Dieselgate. The German car manufacturers are hopelessly late at EV because they wanted to drain every last penny out of their ICE. The EU setback to extend ICE is after German car manufacturers lobbied… They are killing themselves in the long run, for bit more production in the short run. They saw this all coming decades ago and made wrong choices. Now they’re fucked. The Volkswagen id (EV) sales numbers are so disappointing they had to lower production and make employees stay home.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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              6 hours ago

              Lol Volkswagen, the company that actively rigged diesel cars to pass the tests… ?

              That’s the one. They’re run by absolute pieces of corporate shit, but they do still seem to recognize the market driven writing on the wall.

              The German car manufacturers are hopelessly late at EV because they wanted to drain every last penny out of their ICE.

              The pool in Europe is a lot shallower, especially in the wake of the Russia/Ukraine war. They don’t have the same access to cheap fossil fuels that the US enjoys, so they’re being forced to pivot to EVs entirely due to their regional limitations. They’re also competing internationally in a market with a growing Global South demand. Many of these countries are undergoing electrification far faster than they’re seeing a petrochemical expansion, in no small part thanks to the high installation costs of pipelines and processing plants relative to electric grids and renewables generation.

              The Volkswagen id (EV) sales numbers are so disappointing they had to lower production and make employees stay home.

              The entire EU economy has stalled out with the war. But they’ve seen a double-digit upswing in EV sales in Latin America, Africa, and the Pacific Rim.

      • Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        22 hours ago

        Facing reality and evaluating technologies through the crucial era of the 2010s with an eye on efficiency and pollutant reduction in the overall energy sector. From there, having the empirical justifications to your nation that focusing on energy storage and further electrification would be more beneficial than fossil fuels.

        Rather than doubling down on the existing status quo due to lobbying and sunk cost beliefs from prior consumption rates.

          • Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            21 hours ago

            Oh, certainly. However, if enough nations had their heads out of their asses and spoke with engineers rather than oil tycoons, we’d have a more competitive and distributed market for these technologies and a lower future dependence on Chinese imports for said technologies.

            Right now, I can see a chokehold forming on that sector, and it’s a completely self-inflicted circumstance for those deadset on oil.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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              21 hours ago

              we’d have a more competitive and distributed market for these technologies and a lower future dependence on Chinese imports for said technologies.

              I don’t see a future where at least one of the two largest populations of educated professionals doesn’t lead the way on electric vehicles. And that really only leaves you with China or India.

              You might have a broader distribution or more regionalized production. But there’s no world in which a country with the manufacturing capacity plus the enormous population advantage doesn’t come out on top eventually.

              Right now, I can see a chokehold forming on that sector

              I don’t see a chokehold on EVs any more than Taiwan has a chokehold on CPUs.

              There’s a building comparative advantage, but the global market is enormous. Plenty of room to catch up.

              That’s why China has ten competitive major brands right now

              • Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                19 hours ago

                Regarding EVs I agree with you, but I was referring to sodium/solid state battery production.

                As for Chinese production leading the charge, I also think that’s apt, but I’m referring to the availability of domestic alternatives for things such as military production, which seems to only being kickstarted recently compared to say the 2010s. Currently, it seems like compromises will have to be made in order to minimize reliance on imported batteries from China, which is not necessarily a problem for the consumer market, but may be for governments seeking isolationist policies for their self-sufficiency (EU, US).

                There is still plenty of time for things to change of course, but there are plenty of missed opportunities along the way.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      He wants oil even if the wind is cheaper, the wind farm is almost finished and already producing power

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Yeah, conservatives don’t think of the future except through the lens of the present. They can’t imagine a world with EVs and batteries because they have oil brains. They are looking for solutions to problems with an oil first mindset. Sunk cost is everything.

    • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      That’s in part because they see their future through the lens of them oppressing objective developments, so EVs and batteries will never happen in that fantasy. They took a liking to AI for example despite it being relatively new development purely because it helped them in that department. They will only embrace something if it’s ‘their’ idea, and they have a lot of shitty ideas.

    • traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      23 hours ago

      Need to remember where they are getting paid from as well. That’s oil money lining their pockets.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Beyond EVs, the much cheaper sodium-ion battery is entering mass production in China. We can already buy B-grade cells on AliExpress. This will have implications for all sorts of use cases that could use batteries but don’t due to cost.

    • Rekall Incorporated@piefed.social
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      13 hours ago

      much cheaper sodium-ion battery

      To my understanding, these aren’t suitable for many use cases we associate with batteries (smartphones, EVs, laptops), but it has the potential to have a massive impact on utility scale battery systems and industrial use cases.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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        6 hours ago

        Yeah they can’t match top of the line Li-Ion like lithium-cobalt batteries. Neither can LFP, but LFP is good enough for lower range EVs cars as they’re already used in such. Sodium ion has even lower density than LFP but not dramatically so and it’s still early days so their density is likely to improve. Look at these two cells currently on sale:

        The first one is a CATL-made LFP. The second is some smaller manufacturer’s sodium ion. The 729Whr vs 713Whr, 1944cm³ vs 2593cm³. If the sodium ones can be made cheap enough, these are already usable in low range vehicles like Nissan Leaf or equivalent. And then there’s buses, trucks, other ICE powered equipment.

    • bobalot@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      You reckon they will just promise Trump to buy lots of oil but then do nothing like their soybean promise?

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    1 day ago

    Oil companies will probably go the way of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, going broke. They’re continuing to invest heavily in oil infrastructure at a time when the market is shifting and even now there is a flattening of demand for oil products where EVs are becoming prevalent. The trend will start to hit profitability and they will most likely double down.

    • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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      12 hours ago

      Oil companies are not that dimwitted.
      They’re already investing in electric products and there’s more to oil than just car fuel.
      They’re just not in a hurry but don’t think BP can’t easily put electric chargers in all their gas stations in a pinch if they want to.

      Not enough demand yet (nor real pressure, a.k.a. governments or other entities massively enlarging grid offers), so they’re just coasting.

    • RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      go the way of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,

      Still quoted by facists who pretend it’s a better source than Wikipedia?

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    11 hours ago

    Not that Trump is right but, how will we charge said batteries…?

    • bluGill@fedia.io
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      10 hours ago

      In my case wind turbines. My local utility produces more wind power in a year than customers use.

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        7 hours ago

        Funny thing. Cloudy and rainy days tend to be windier than sunny days. So, with a bit of battery reserve or net metering, it all balances out.

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        9 hours ago

        Wind turbines can’t meet the energy demand of the infrastructure unfortunately. Nuclear is the most feasible option however, with the exception of France, no country has really committed to an energy source that can adequately support charging all these batteries albeit oil, natural gas, renewable energy etc. Oil and natural gas still continue to be the cheapest

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        8 hours ago

        That is excellent and cost effective, however what then when there’s no sun out or it’s cloudy? Will you not travel?

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          This is one of the concerns I have watched with interest ……

          • with the first mass market push to wind “grid won’t be stable with any significant amount”
          • as wind and solar became more popular “renewables can only be 30% without destabilizing the grid
          • this past summer “with today’s renewables and storage technology, the cheapest most stable option is 95% of the grid”

          Your concern may be technically and historically valid but is rapidly disappearing

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 hours ago

          however what then when there’s no sun out or it’s cloudy?

          You’re not going to believe this, but solar panels will still work even when the light is reflected or partially blocked by clouds. Rain actually helps to keep your panels operating efficiently by washing away any dust or dirt. If you live in an area with a strong net metering policy, excess energy generated by your panels during sunny hours will offset energy that you use at night and other times when your system isn’t operating at full capacity.

          • jof@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            That’s crazy. I never would’ve guessed. Did you also know solar panels have a theoretical limit of 33%, which is diminished even more when sunlight is further blocked? Wow! That means they’re horribly inefficient and even more so when less light comes in! Who knew! So really we’re talking about pennies on the dollar at the end of the day when something like supplying a grid at a larger level would mean nuclear.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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              6 hours ago

              Did you also know solar panels have a theoretical limit of 33%

              Did you know fractions are predicated on a base value?

              So really we’re talking about pennies on the dollar at the end of the day

              That’s definitely an aphorism.

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      There’s this really neat thing called nuclear reactors that produce an enormous amount of energy. It’s only been around for ~70 years but they look promising.

      • jof@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Right. And how many countries currently use or are planning to use this In a large scale capacity besides France? Oh yea.

        No need to be a dickhead.

      • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        There was even a car that charged itself with solar, they only ran out of money because there was little interest for an unknown new brand

        • RamRabbit@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          The cars with solar panels on them are a gimmick. There isn’t enough surface area on a normal car to meaningfully charge the battery.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            I think you would be surprised. The problem really comes from the car not being a good shape to put solar panels on. I did the math a while back, and I only needed 200w of panels to cover my weekly driving.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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          10 hours ago

          There was never a car that charged itself with solar because it’s practically impossible unless you put the car on a turntable at the equator in July.

  • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    21 hours ago

    they are shutting down refineries all over the country because people aren’t buying as much gas as they used to

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      20 hours ago

      I saw an IEA (i think it was ) estimate that China reduced oil consumption by 1.6 million barrels a day already becase of their EV rollout (cars and buses).