Opinion by Mathew Carr

Jan. 7, 2024 — Recent feature stories by the Financial Times and even the China Daily on electric vehicles miss some crucial parts of the greedy US economic and geopolitical strategy.

Specifically, the four ways the United States cheats when it is outcompeted in a fairer and cleaner market — in this case the market for electric vehicles

America is missing billions of dollars of revenue because it refused to accept climate action is necessary and urgent.

Now, the only way it can win in the rapidly changing and crucial auto market is by cheating.

It’s cheating by keeping cheaper China producers away from US markets by imposing unfair tariffs.

It’s running scared because China is proving it’s better prepared for the transition.

See this Jan. 6 FT story, where China automakers are sitting on enough capacity to supply 75% of global EV demand, which “should keep western automakers awake at night”.

Opening up to China would allow the USA to “easily” meet its climate target of having EVs supply 50% of new vehicle sales by 2030, China Daily’s columnist said in a story starting on page one Dec. 29.

Both columns underplay another motive of the greedy US market structure: it wants to protect billions of dollars of sales of climate-damaging crude oil (a deadly market that’s rigged by OPEC+ and that America secretly loves).

The US is easily the biggest oil producer and it has massively boosted oil output since signing up to the UNFCCC more than 30 years ago and signing up to the Paris climate deal in 2015:

There is little doubt the oil price would fall further without this reckless protection racket – American mafia in action.

Four ways the US cheats:

One

cheating on its climate agreements (Paris climate deal struck in 2015) by massively boosting oil production;

Two

cheating its own consumers who deserve to pay less for clean transportation (including a lower price for oil, perhaps? It IS arguable that higher oil prices spur climate action but the argument has run out of credibility given the steep global temperature gains);

Three

cheating on taxpayers who miss out of carbon allowance revenue if the US had a more rational energy / economic policy — ie a carbon price, and;

Four

(related to number one) cheating on the rest of the world because it’s already used more than its fair share of the global carbon budget.

David Ungar, Co -Founder and Managing Director at Carbon Finance Laboratory LLC, a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corp. criticised my opinion on LinkedIn.

In full, undedited:
“Fascinating… perhaps if the Chinese industry/ government would agree to compensate everyone for the damages they have caused with their government mandated and run industrial espionage… if they would accept the same conditions to enter foreign markets that they have set as a condition for western companies to enter the Chinese market. I am driving electric cars for a decade… Americans drive twice the distance that Europeans… it is not the price of the vehicles but rather the charging infrastructure that is needed to see better acceptance.. US is pushing this climate action… and many tools and value proposition of the climate fight will become viable due to the actions of the Feds and many State governments with the economic weight of several G-20 nation… and it is not greediness that is the obstacle…. Perhaps you should develop a better appreciation about the society you are reporting on or observe. As I am afraid, you very much need to.”

My response: Gyozo David Ungar hi and thanks…what espionage…? …Elon Musk deliberately set his tech so others could copy it…. He is a legend for that ….what do you mean by espionage?

I’m adding some reading for balance:

(Reuters, Jan. 2018) – Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel Wind Group Co was convicted of U.S. charges that it stole trade secrets from AMSC, causing the Massachusetts-based company to lose more than $800 million.

This updated survey is based on publicly available information and lists 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States since 2000.

CarrZee: I comment further: The US could have been a world leader in EV tech. It has in some ways (expensive Teslas) … but in other ways it seems to have decided not to. That seems to be a deliberate free choice …or it’s deliberately letting China have control of the battery supply chain … or the US was just not competitive in setting up these chains.

(More to come)