The US must urgently build up an electric vehicles industry or risk becoming dependent on China for its automotive future, a group of senior military and business leaders have warned.
China is in the process of consolidating control of the supply chain for electrified transport — from mineral extraction and battery production to manufacture and sales of the vehicles themselves — according to the group, Securing America’s Future Energy, which campaigns for US energy security.
Failure by US authorities to counter Chinese dominance within the next five years risks the “withering of the US automobile industry” and the loss of millions jobs supported by the country’s auto sector today, said Admiral Dennis Blair, a former director of national intelligence, who sits on SAFE’s energy security leadership council.