China can stop e-mobility in the EU with a snap of a finger. Politicians have not done much for change so far
E-mobility in the European Union is "hanging by a thread." A single decision by Chinese officials could halt the EU's plan to transition to zero-emission transportation. However, politicians across the European twenty-seven do not seem too concerned about potential problems.
Although vehicle sales statistics in the Czech Republic do not seem to reflect it, within the European Union, electric vehicles are starting to form an increasingly large group on the roads. Their development, and thus the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that the EU has committed to, could be very quickly halted by a single decision from China.
Not only European car manufacturers but also those in the USA are still heavily dependent on batteries supplied from China. Although China is not the main extractor of this metal, without which it is currently impossible to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, it is the main processor.
According to some sources, Chinese companies currently process up to 70 percent of the global lithium production, making China a superpower on which car manufacturers worldwide depend. This could pose a tremendous problem for car manufacturers in the European Union if the political situation escalates rapidly leading to a restriction of supply.
The United States is well aware of this, as Chinese comrades currently threaten them with halting the export of certain technologies necessary for producing batteries and processing raw materials like lithium or gallium. Beyond this, China could also stop selling LFP battery technologies — the so-called lithium-iron-phosphate accumulators — to the USA as part of a trade war.
LFP batteries are expected to play a crucial role in the development of electromobility in the coming years due to their properties, which surpass the technologies used in today's lithium-ion cells. Already, these cells are part of many of the best-selling electric vehicles, such as the Tesla Model 3.
The halt in lithium and other technology supplies to the USA might not be the end of it for China, and if the conflicts with the European Union deepen, European car manufacturers might face a similar fate. They are already struggling against the rising competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers, who surpass them both in technology and the final price of vehicles.
However, as it currently seems, the political leaders of the EU are not too concerned about a situation that could soon become critical for the extensive European automotive industry. Despite efforts to transfer some critical technologies and their manufacturing to the twenty-seven countries of Europe, this is not working out very well.
The mining of lithium and its processing up to the delivery of the final product — the battery cell — still remains quite minor within the EU. Companies are failing to compete against the established Chinese competition, which often receives state support. This can also be illustrated with the example of the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, which could not bear the current situation after a large order cancellation and filed for creditor protection.
