China has largely cornered the battery manufacturing market, Granholm said, making DOE’s commitment to EVs as much about economic growth and national security as it is about cleaner air.
SAFE has estimated China controls nearly 70% of global EV battery manufacturing capacity, and North America has less than 10%. The group advocates for emissions-free transportation policies, and has published research showing the United States could create 647,000 jobs within the next five years by aggressively growing the EV market and securing the electric transportation supply chain.
According to SAFE, 142 lithium-ion battery megafactories were under construction worldwide as of 2020; 107 were located in China — with just nine in the United States.
“This could be a big problem. Because the auto and truck manufacturing sectors in the United States have been the key to our industrial base,” SAFE CEO Robbie Diamond said during the webinar.
“Governments have to get in the game — at least the United States does, or we will be run over,” Granholm said. She called for the country to grow critical mining and processing capabilities, increase battery production, and scale up EV and related transportation technology manufacturing.
All of those strategies will necessary to reach a net-zero carbon economy by 2050, with a zero-carbon electricity sector by 2035, as Biden has called for, said Granholm. “There is a huge sense of urgency in getting these solutions out the door,” she said.
Granholm talked about SAFE’s report on clean transportation job opportunities, saying it confirms that “solutions to the climate crisis can create massive job opportunities for economy and American people.”
SAFE’s report highlights the potential for more than 270,000 jobs “through investment in transportation manufacturing grants and tax incentives” and nearly 154,000 jobs through “incentives that make it cheaper to buy medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, like trucks and buses.”
On the topic of buses, Diamond said there are about 400,000 electric buses in China right now and only 1,000 in the United States. “Think about the amount of materials in the supply chain” necessary to construct those buses, he said.
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