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 2 days ago by UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
196 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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[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, they just found it late last year. And still working out how they should bring it up. They've made estimates on the amount, i'm not qualified to verify their estimates.

If they can actually bring it up we have security in the materials required to make the research worth it.

But no, we have not dug up all of the ground to get oil. Oil is a lot more liquid than lithium ore. We can pump up the oil without having to excavate the entire surrounding area.

I'm not saying that to defend oil. But the funny part about it is that if they had dug up all of the ground to get it, they would have found their lithium deposits sooner. Because they found it in an oil-field.

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

What does that even mean? Do you have any idea how long ago it was since we found the last naturally occurring element? Should we have just stoped all research I the early 1900's because "the periodic table is not changing". Dumbest shit I've heard all years. And yes, I did hear about Trumps email to Norway. You still win.

[–] makingrain@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Adding to your comment: Lithium brines are extracted through drilled wells, it's not always ore.

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

Thank you. I didn't know that.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago

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

Chinese Sodium-Ion Batteries enter the chat