I'll play devil's advocate.
The Chinese have been heavily subsidizing battery production, and rare earth mining/processing, and have gained control over many of the deposits and production steps outside of their borders as well.
They use these subsidies to undercut the rest of the world. Which has successfully driven most other producers out of business, or driven them to move production to China. Same with solar panels etc.
If you consider EV's or renewable energy to be critical industries, and don't want to be reliant on a hostile foreign country, then the only way to attract the business back onshore is to out-subsidize not only the Chinese, but also the US who is currently competing to attract these businesses with massive subsidies. This is the only way to break that monopoly. The private sector can't afford to lose money competing with the Chinese subsidies and their virtual monopoly.
If you agree with the above, then this is a good long term investment in our long term security.
If you happen to understand physics and economics and electricity generation and grids and the limits of resource extraction, and consumers, and therefore can comprehend the severe limitations of, and limited eventual market share of EV's etc., then all of the other assumptions prove to be false.
The Chinese have been heavily subsidizing battery production, and rare earth mining/processing, and have gained control over many of the deposits and production steps outside of their borders as well.
They use these subsidies to undercut the rest of the world. Which has successfully driven most other producers out of business, or driven them to move production to China. Same with solar panels etc.
If you consider EV's or renewable energy to be critical industries, and don't want to be reliant on a hostile foreign country, then the only way to attract the business back onshore is to out-subsidize not only the Chinese, but also the US who is currently competing to attract these businesses with massive subsidies. This is the only way to break that monopoly. The private sector can't afford to lose money competing with the Chinese subsidies and their virtual monopoly.
If you agree with the above, then this is a good long term investment in our long term security.
If you happen to understand physics and economics and electricity generation and grids and the limits of resource extraction, and consumers, and therefore can comprehend the severe limitations of, and limited eventual market share of EV's etc., then all of the other assumptions prove to be false.
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