China Puts New Restrictions on E.V. Battery Manufacturing Technology
The plan could make it harder for Chinese electric carmakers to set up factories overseas, as the European Union has pushed them to do. Effective immediately, any overseas transfer of these technologies through trade, investment or technological cooperation will first require a license from the Chinese government, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
Chinese manufacturers have achieved important breakthroughs in the past five years in making inexpensive batteries that can provide considerable driving range for electric vehicles. The new generation of battery technology is central to China's success in building electric cars that are considerably cheaper than electric and gasoline-powered cars made in other countries.
The European Union has been pressing Chinese automakers and battery manufacturers to set up operations in the bloc as an unofficial condition for continued growth in sales of Chinese cars there. The United States has been more wary of Chinese investment, but plans for at least two Chinese electric car battery factories have been proposed in Michigan.
The new restriction on battery technologies comes less than three months after Beijing began requiring licenses for exports of seven kinds of rare earth metals and the magnets made from them. Those restrictions have already caused considerable disruption to companies in the West and Japan that manufacture cars, robots and other advanced devices that require electric motors with small but powerful rare earth magnets.
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