The last time the U.S. tried to foster domestic battery manufacturing, its star company ended up being scooped up by a Chinese conglomerate. Can the Biden administration avoid the same fate?
President George W. Bush spoke with the press alongside A123 executives in front of the White House in February 2007. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Listen to SupChina editor-at-large and Sinica podcast host Kaiser Kuo read this article.
Six months ago, in early October, Doug Campbell sat down in front of a camera in Louisville, Colorado, just 20 miles outside of Denver, to deliver some big news. Dressed in a trucker cap and hooded sweatshirt, the 42-year-old chief executive officer of battery start-up Solid Power looked more Rocky Mountain-cool than materials scientist-serious, but he didn’t miss a beat as he rattled off his company’s major electrochemical achievement.
“Today, we are pleased to announce the production and delivery of the company’s first generation multi-layer, multi-amp-hour, all solid-state lithium-metal cell,” he said.
For the battery industry, all solid-state lithium-ion cells are a holy grail: they can store dramatically more energy while simultaneously being safer to charge and use. Analysts say they could unlock enormous profits as well as a host of technological lea
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
With traditional information gathering inside China nearly impossible these days, many researchers are using creative methods to mine the Chinese internet — and they're finding diamonds. From what's happening in Xinjiang to the PLA's use of AI to China's new nuclear capabilities, these researchers are defying the perception that China is a black box.
The business consultant talks about the full complexity of human trafficking, how companies can 'leave' responsibly, and the very fast-evolving picture of sanctions.
