China Prepares to Impose Restrictions on Export of Essential Components for EV Batteries
Our nation has one thing going in our favor, in terms of this particular trade battle: American’s don’t want to buy an EV.
Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, China appears to be preparing for a trade war.
China plans to restrict the export of essential components for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, specifically targeting technologies that process lithium and gallium — critical minerals for electronics and batteries.
Technology used to process lithium and gallium – critical minerals used in electronics and batteries – is to be subject to tighter export rules under new proposals.
The latest measure on battery materials is part of efforts to “strengthen the management of technology imports and exports”, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.
The proposals highlight one of the weapons in Beijing’s arsenal as it gears up for a potential trade war with the US.
Mr Trump has said he is prepared to impose tariffs on Chinese imports as soon as the opening days of his presidency, which begins on Jan 20. Such action is likely to trigger retaliation from Beijing.
Beijing also plans to restrict the export of technology used to extract minerals critical for EV production.
China also wants to add battery cathode technology to its list of controlled exports, according to a notice published Thursday by the Commerce Ministry soliciting public comment, on top of the proposed restrictions on technology related to producing lithium and gallium.
If approved, the new additions would form a future round of export controls imposed by China on a slew of critical materials and the technology needed to produce them, which are crucial to manufacturing semiconductors and EV batteries.
Asked about the proposal during a regular press conference on Friday, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said: “What we can tell you as a principle is that China implements fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory export control measures.”
Adding to the complexities associated with supply chains and dealing with Communists who throw out the ‘free market’ card as convenient to them, newly discovered deposits in China now make it the second largest holder of lithium in the world.
Wang Denghong, a senior scientist at CGS explained that China has been ramping up nationwide lithium exploration efforts Since 2021. These initiatives uncovered over 30 million metric tons of lithium ore across regions like Sichuan, Qinghai, Jiangxi, and the Xinjiang Uygur and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions. Key discoveries include:
- Lepidolite Lithium: Approximately 10 million tons were found in Hunan, Jiangxi, and Inner Mongolia.
- Brine Lithium: Qinghai’s reserves now total about 10 million tons.
- Spodumene Lithium: Xinjiang added another 10 million tons to the tally.
Exploration in Tibet also revealed a 2,800-km-long spodumene belt in the Xikunsong-Pan-Ganzi region, further boosting China’s reserves.
One factor in the U.S.’s favor, in terms of this particular trade war: Americans don’t want to buy an EV.
Only 5 percent of US consumers want their next vehicle to be a battery electric vehicle, according to a new survey by Deloitte. The consulting company gathered data from more than 31,000 people across 30 countries as part of its 2025 Global Automotive Consumer Study, and some of the results are rather interesting, as they pertain to technologies like new powertrains, connectivity, and artificial intelligence.
Among US consumers, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain number one, with 62 percent indicating that their next car will not be electrified. Another 1 in 5 would like a hybrid for their next vehicle, with a further 6 percent desiring a plug-in hybrid. (The remaining survey respondents either did not know or wanted some other powertrain option.)
However, if the apocalypse spread beyond the Greater Los Angeles area, cybertrucks might take off.
Yes. Please be careful in some areas, as there is non-zero risk of armed looters.
Cybertruck side panels are bulletproof to subsonic projectiles (handguns, shotgun & Tommy gun), but the glass is not, so make sure to duck if you see anyone wielding a gun.
This is not fiction. https://t.co/pISxsxLLj6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 12, 2025
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Comments
USGS reported several months ago that they believe the ‘Smackover’ formation in Arkansas has enough Lithium to meet global demand for several decades. Unfortunately, it’s so ridiculously expensive and difficult to mine anything in the US anymore, that Lithium reserve might as well be on Mars. We’re our own worst enemy.
Then you have the President declare lithium a “strategic mineral” and necessary for the “national security”, eliminate all the regulations that make it so difficult and expensive to mine the mineral. And then do so.
LOL. That is actually a help. It could possibly force idiot states like California to back off on their EV lunacy. Possibly …
China doesn’t seem to realize how vulnerable they are. They have deluded themselves into thinking that their economy is organic. It is not. They live on the brink. So do we, of course (given how mismanaged our economy and finance has been over the past decades) but we are built on a tradition of contracts and private ownership. CHina has little history with those concepts and little respect for them, now, so they have nothing to fall back on, really, other than their fundamental totalitarian government.
Anyway, I welcome them throwing a wrench in California’s (and the Democrats’) totally insane, suicide-bomber jihad against gas engines.
Given that the Geenies/EnviroWackos don’t want *anyone* (except them, because they’re special) to have private transportation, I sadly doubt that anything will change.
Sounds good to me. Absent exponential breakthroughs in battery technology, the global EV market will always be a niche, despite politicians and self-appointed environmental-nazis efforts. This move will only reinforce this fact and hopefully stop the-powers-that-pretend-to-be from wasting so much money on market distorting subsidies.
My 2007 and 2012 ICE vehicles care not a bit about this.
.
Good.
If the Chinese really want to play trade hardball, they will restrict the export of pharmaceutical compounds. IIRC, more than 80% of the active ingredients of medical drugs come from China and more than 90% of antibiotics.
Yes, you are correct that a large percentage of US antibiotic drugs are made in China. This has to stop, and production should be incented to be produced in the United States.
EV and AI…. both are bubbles based on lies preying on people with very little smarts.
You might think that with all the spying China does in the USA they might have noticed that electric vehicles are not popular with the auto-buying public.
That’s good news. Along with opening up oil and gas supplies in the USA an end to federal subsidies in factored into future EV prices, most EV sales will further dry up easing the burden on our power grid. With prices of EVs up and the supplies of gas bringing gasoline costs down, the lack of plug in charging stations, EVs should have very limited market appeal. Feel sorry though for those who already bought purely electric vehicles.
With the EV market entering a recession (or perhaps a depression), China has picked the worst possible timing for such an announcement.
Yup, Yup.
“Bad boy! Just for that, I’m not giving you any more of this awful-tasting tonic!”
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