Owning the Future: Electric Vehicles May Cede U.S. Power to China Which Controls 70% of the World’s Lithium

CHANGCHUN, CHINA - JULY 05: Employees work on the assembly line of new energy vehicles (NE
Zhang Yao/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s commitment to his green energy agenda, with Electric Vehicles (EVs) at the forefront, without first securing an American supply chain is likely to cede United States economic power to its biggest adversary, China.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) are now striking against the top three automakers, General Motors (GM), Ford, and Stellantis. The union has continuously asked for a contract that ensures security for auto workers amid Biden’s EV push which, if not coupled with an ambitious manufacturing agenda, may eliminate millions of U.S. jobs.

China would be the largest beneficiary of such failures by the Biden administration. Aside from producing a majority of the world’s EVs, China also controls key components of the EV battery supply chain.

Through the mineral refining process necessary to build EV batteries, China controls nearly 70 percent of the world’s lithium, 95 percent of manganese, 73 percent of cobalt, 70 percent of graphite, and 63 percent of nickel.

Compare China’s control over mineral refining to the U.S., which has barely any domestic capacity to process minerals today despite Biden’s insistence that the American economy and consumers are prepared for EVs.

China also controls the parts needed to go into an EV battery.

About 77 percent of cathodes are made in China, along with 74 percent of separators, 82 percent of electrolytes, 92 percent of anodes, 73 percent of NMC cathodes, and 99 percent of LFP cathodes.

The U.S., on the other hand, makes just one percent of the world’s NMC cathodes that are used for EV batteries.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.

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