How EV Manufacturing Goes China vs USA

Of these, Tesla is the only EV manufacturer, all-in on electrification. That’s while shunning all other power trains. With the Model 3, being produced at high volumes in partnership with Panasonic or with any other battery supply. That’s because Tesla is now producing about 5,600 vehicles per week. That was from Bloomberg News, recently reported. At this rate, as Triple Pundit Reports, the company can claim to have joined the ranks as a mass-market automaker. I mean they sell into Norway, China and other countries. Therefore “selling across global markets“.

So America’s firm foothold in EV production should bode well for the future. However, an article published in Forbes indicates that the United States is in fact already losing the manufacturing battle. Yes when it comes to electric cars. China seems to be dominating. China alone being accountable for 40 percent of the global production of electric vehicles. That’s as compared with 20 percent made by U.S.-based companies.

Yet again, China is surpassing the U.S. in manufacturing—this time with EVs.

The author of the Forbes article, Paul Bledsoe, a partner of an energy and climate change consultancy, warns that EV manufacturing in the U.S. is in danger of going the same way as solar panel manufacturing—which has declined substantially in recent years.

Once an important new and burgeoning industry in America, U.S. solar panel manufacturers have lost ground, also to China.

True, the comparison of the EV industry with solar panel manufacturing may have its limits. Solar panels are effectively electronic devices, a manufacturing discipline where China already has a huge advantage, whereas auto-making has been a dominant industry in the U.S. for well over a century. As such, the U.S. should benefit from its leading competence and experience in building cars. Still, manufacturers like China’s BYD are already major players in hybrids and battery electric vehicles, so there’s no room for complacency.

Bledsoe asserts that government policy will be necessary to keep EV manufacturing vital in America. But how likely is this when it appears the current administration’s position is not so much complacent about losing ground to China but rather, disinterested?

The Donald Trump administration’s recent budget proposal wants to end federal tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles, while at the same time, the administration announced this week it wants to speed up gas and petroleum pipeline building. As a matter of setting priorities, though today’s global vehicle fleet remains predominantly gasoline- and diesel-powered, the rest of the world, including China, is moving on.