There’s New Impetus in the U.S. To Get China Out of the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain. It Won’t Be Easy.

File image of BYD workers assembling a new New Energy Vehicle at a factory in Huaian in eastern China's Jiangsu province. STR / AFP

The electric vehicle battery start-up SPARKZ announced this week that it will build a new 4.5-hectare factory in the rural U.S. state of West Virginia. The new facility will employ 350 workers, mostly former coal miners, in what will become a critical test for Washington’s desire to end the country’s dependence on Chinese vendors that control the global EV battery supply chain.

SPARKZ plans to build next-generation lithium-ion batteries that are more affordable and, more importantly, do not use cobalt. Chinese companies today dominate both the cobalt extraction sector, most of which comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the metal processing that’s done back in China.

  • Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis.
  • Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations.
  • Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South.

China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening.

Subscribe today for unlimited access.

OR

Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More
by Eric Olander

Most Read

1
Developing Countries’ Debt Servicing Costs to China Are Significant, but Nowhere Near as Much as Other Creditors
2 Chinese Military Fans Discuss Why Indonesia Bought Rafale Instead of J-10C
3
Chinese Cargo Planes Secretly Ferrying Supplies to Iran, Claim Online Sleuths
4
Indonesia Goes Nuclear, Taps China and Russia for Modular Reactors
5
Thailand in Last-Minute U.S. Talks as 36% Tariff Looms
6 Trump’s Contradictory Iran Strategy Leaves U.S. Weaker After War’s End, Says Chinese Commentator

You Might Like

Q&A: Why Now? The Domestic Politics Driving the DRC’s Review of Chinese Mining Contracts

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi is fulfilling the promise he made last May to investigate foreign mining contracts to ensure they are fair and equitable. While the President did not single out the Chinese ...

Battery Metals Revealing the Limits of U.S. Pressure?

The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo is currently dominating China-Global South conversations. This isn’t because anything particularly notable emerged from their discussion. Rather, the very blandness ...

Zambians Go to the Polls in a Tight Presidential Election with No China-Bashing, For Once

Ballots are now being counted in Zambia’s general election that took place on Thursday. Presidential incumbent Edgar Lungu faces opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema in a contest that has been too close to call for ...

China and the High Stakes Showdown in the DR Congo

Chinese mining bosses for years played the game as everyone else in the DR Congo. Money pretty much solved every problem. Need a permit? Pay some money. Get in trouble with the law? ...

What is The China-Global South Project?

Independent

The China-Global South Project is passionately independent, non-partisan and does not advocate for any country, company or culture.

News

A carefully curated selection of the day’s most important China-Global South stories. Updated 24 hours a day by human editors. No bots, no algorithms.

Analysis

Diverse, often unconventional insights from scholars, analysts, journalists and a variety of stakeholders in the China-Global South discourse.

Networking

A unique professional network of China-Africa scholars, analysts, journalists and other practioners from around the world.

More about CGSP