China already dominates the processing of more than half of the world’s lithium, a critical material for EV batteries.It is now set to call the shots in what comes next: sodium-ion batteries.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9610729

Snip:

China already dominates the processing of more than half of the world’s lithium, a critical material for EV batteries. It is now set to call the shots in what comes next: sodium-ion batteries.

Their appeal lies in the fact that they can reduce reliance on expensive and strategically important critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel and cobalt.

Sodium is cheap and found almost everywhere - including ordinary salt and seawater. Sodium-ion batteries can use hard carbon made from biomass and industrial waste.

[…]

China’s battery industry spent a decade perfecting lithium-ion manufacturing at global scale, and is now applying the same industrial approach: supply-chain integration, rapid iteration, cost discipline and policy coordination - to sodium-ion.

  • 3scene@lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    3 days ago

    Its interesting reading these moments through a ‘state’/class lens; the People’s democratic dictatorship will be a difficult foe as seen through the eyes of the US oligarchy. How can the US compete against a foe that is able to think in terms of it’s whole? If the US is unable to see that helping the people is in everyone’s interest then they are doomed to fail without their vassalage or colonial network.

    Where the US ruling class is purely interested in preserving the tech/military/financial/industrial complex so as to extract as much surplus value from their citizens as possible it will never be able to stand up to a DotP that’s aim is to improving the lives of the people: healthy and happy people are productive people. Higher productive capacity empowers more and more: its an ever greater climb to an ever growing top!