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
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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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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 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.

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago

I'm not arguing for oil. Yet the current production costs for lithium batteries, compared to their lifecycle, rivals that of combustion propulsion. That doesn't mean we should stop researching and finding better methods. But it's far from as "environmentally" friendly as you think it is.

Oh, and Europe have oil. Plenty of it. Where would you like start? The coast outside Norway? The vast natural gas reserves in western Russia? The ocean outside of Scotland, maybe it just happenes to be a shit ton of oil under Greenland which is 100% unrelated to why Trump wants to own it.

I'm still not arguing for or against oil. I'm saying Europe isn't following the US, and Europe isn't interested in following China either. Europe is interested in carving out sustainability for themselves without US or China.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day 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.