A recent study highlights a significant vulnerability in China’s global rare earth dominance, revealing that the United States and Japan largely control the core patents for advanced rare earth functional material technologies, crucial for high-value applications. Photograph: Kind courtesy Peggy Greb, US department of agriculture/wikipedia.org/Creative Commons Key Points China’s rare earth dominance is undermined by…
China’s enviable electric vehicles have made American automakers extremely nervous in recent times. But if you’re assuming that Chinese automakers are simply cruising at home, with generous subsidies and cutting-edge battery tech, you’d be mistaken. EV sales in China are starting to flatline and even BYD, the country’s dominant player in the space, is feeling…
China’s advanced auto industry may be hitting some speed bumps at home, but it’s expanding overseas at warp speed. And lately it’s been a question of “when,” not “if,” those vehicles could ever come to the United States. 2026 already feels like some dominoes have begun to fall. You had the Geely Group’s strong showing at…
Let’s strip away all the hype, all the noise and all the controversies for a moment and get real: I do not think there would have been a Tesla, as we understand it today, without Elon Musk. No, he didn’t start the company, as many believe. But Musk’s early capital, leadership through the Great Recession,…
After unveiling plans for a $30,000 electric truck, senior Ford executives told journalists it was the perfect launchpad for their new EV program. Trucks, they argued, make it easier to integrate certain features—even if those features aren’t used every day. But the EV market doesn’t follow the same rules as gas vehicles. Growth has been…