U.S. Inches Closer To Electric Car Supply Chain In Bid To Rival China
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Bipartisan support has emerged for a national electric car supply chain policy in the United States Senate. The federal government is now inching closer to implementing action to challenge China’s dominance in electric vehicle metal and battery production, Reuters reported Tuesday.
According to the report, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently held a hearing on the American Mineral Security Act. The legislation aims to make it easier and quicker for mines to meet regulations and gain permits for lithium, graphite, and other minerals or precious materials for electric car production. It would also require a tally of metal reserves in the country.
The legislation features bipartisan sponsors: Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. At the hearing, Murkowski said the U.S. is doing itself no favors by not knowing how much of a particular natural resource is available, in reference to the tally mandate for electric car materials.
The process would send field experts out across the U.S. to take rock samples and understand what minerals might be hiding beneath our own feet. Experts said current estimates of lithium and other rare earth minerals used in battery production are likely conservative.
Everyone agreed China has a huge head start on production and processing. Even some U.S. facilities face somewhat of a monopoly and must send minerals to China for processing because the market remains weak domestically. Some companies called for federal loan guarantees to boost mining production and jumpstart the market. Investors are often wary of new mine projects in the U.S. because of China’s dominance in the segment.
The Trump Administration has already signaled support for the bipartisan legislation, though it’s unclear when the committee will bring the legislation up for a vote.
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Source: Reuters
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The real question is whether General Motors CEO Mary Barra is up for the job given that she has demonstrated her inability to execute any type of strategy with Cadillac being a prime example as Cadillac is trying to rediscover itself for the 3rd time in recent years and it appears if Barra is skipping hybrids and jumping directly into full electrification despite the fact that there’s no infrastructure to support an entire fleet of electric vehicles.
Cadillac has a ginormous branding problem that goes far beyond any CEO.
At this point it was a looooong time ago when Cadillac meant top of line luxury. Cadillac is to cars is what David Letterman is to talk shows. Historic? Yes. Legendary? Yes. On the pulse of what’s current? Nope.
GM Enthusiasts like yourself believe Cadillac’s next bright day is just around the corner with proper marketing and stewardship. It isn’t. You’re delusional. There’s no easy trick for Cadillac to leap frog it’s way back to the top.
Cadillac (and Buick) branding drifted from white guys to black people. In this lovely USofA that effect kills any brand. Pretty much for good.
If GM launched a luxury-luxury brand (better than Cadillac) called, say, Avenir… if their cars took off Cadillac would be gone 20 minutes later.
It’s a branding problem.
“Cadillac (and Buick) branding drifted from white guys to black people. In this lovely USofA that effect kills any brand. Pretty much for good.”….WTF?
Electric cars may be a trend right now but it’ll become a necessity in the future at the rate we’re exhausting our natural resources. We might need to work on getting a new planet when the world becomes unhabitable.