The U.S. wants to decrease its dependency on foreign countries as the transition to electric vehicles ramps up. It’s no secret that right now, China has a big advantage in the production of EV batteries. That’s mostly down to China having a near-monopoly on refining the minerals and metals used in battery production, but sourcing the raw materials in the first place will matter just as much. The U.S. thinks it already has all the minerals it needs in the country, and we are possibly going beyond “Made in the USA” onto “Mined in the USA.”
Biden announced a series of public and private investments on Tuesday, which will allegedly boost domestic supply of lithium, cobalt and other rare earths, the New York Times reports. These investments are supposed to curb — or even eliminate — our need to import these metals from Australia, Chile and China. The NYT cited Biden, who claimed that we currently import close to 100 percent of these raw materials.
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