Power Surge: Chinese Electric Car Battery Maker Charges For Global Market (reuters.com)

A dusty village on the outskirts of Ningde, a third-tier city in China's southeast, seems an unlikely place for the headquarters of a potential global leader in future automotive technology. Reuters writes about a promising company from China that is eyeing global expansion. From the article: Yet China's top-down industrial policy diktats - move up the value chain, clean up polluted urban skies, and shift to plug-in cars -- have Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd poised to go from hometown hero to national champion, and beyond. China's answer to Japan's Panasonic Corp and South Korea's LG Chem Ltd has tripled its production capacity for lithium-ion car batteries in the past year to keep up with a surge in China's sales of electric cars. After a second major funding round completed in October, the company's value quadrupled to 80 billion yuan ($11.5 billion), CEO Huang Shilin said last week. CATL, which hopes to list on Beijing's over-the-counter exchange as part of plans to raise at least another 30 billion yuan by 2020, could be a dominant force globally.

Comments

Over the counter

[110010001000]

Sounds like someone is pushing an over the counter stock scam.

Re:Over the counter

[Mr D from 63]

I heard the Chinese will also build a ginkgo-factory that will revolutionize production.

Maybe electric cars are no good for China at the m

[Zorpheus]

A large part of their electricity is produced in coal power plants, which don't even have sufficient filtering for soothe and sulfur oxide. An electric car running from such power plants is way worse for the local and global environment than a petrol car. More CO2, lots of additional SO2 and soothe.
They should focus on these power plants and on their kitchen fireplaces first.

Re: Maybe electric cars are no good for China at t

[Anonymous Coward]

Experience the calming warmth of our new coal power plant..join us and be soothed.

Method Acting

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, the Chinese are really taking this whole climate change conspiracy to the next level. I mean, it's obviously a scam to make America less competitive, but they seem to be wasting a lot of money trying to fool everybody.

Re:Method Acting

[blindseer]

Let's assume someone is doing a scam, perhaps in housing. A single person in a bank or other financial institution cannot create a housing bubble but if enough people like this get together to collude then they might be able to pull it off. If other banks see this artificial housing market come along then they might get into it to make some money too. These banks outside the circle might see this as a scam, merely suspect it is a scam but can't prove it to anyone, or are oblivious to the scam. Whether they know it is a scam or not they will act in their best interest to make money for themselves.

The house builder just sees the value of housing go up. So he builds more houses. If he sees business improve enough then he'll hire on more people. Some others will see this as a good business to get into and create a new business to build houses, or expand an existing business to do what they already do. For example a person that already has a good business selling replacement windows, siding, and roofing might see more business in building more houses rather than repairing existing ones. Again, these people building the houses might know that there is a scam involved, or not, but either way they will act in their best interests to make money.

When the scam falls apart, and they all do or it's not really a scam, then the people that started it all put on their golden parachutes and make a soft landing in retirement, or creating the next scam. Those that didn't make plans for a soft landing are left in a severe financial position. This might include the people in the scam and those that weren't, those that planned for the scam to run out did well.

If there is a global warming hoax then we cannot assume that everyone in the "green" energy business know it is a hoax. Some people might just be in it for the money. Some might be in it for the "good of the planet" or something. Since this is China we're talking about, and they are wanting to build product to sell around the world, then it is possible that they are not in on the hoax but instead see profit. If they are in on the hoax then they'll say one thing publicly and do another thing privately. Given their air quality issues in the recent past it is difficult to tell. They might not care about global warming but instead care about air quality. It is also possible they don't care about either but want to get in on the money making from the hoax created in the West.

In short, this proves nothing either way on if there is some sort of global warming conspiracy or not.

Re:Maybe electric cars are no good for China at th

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

This isn't material to the decision making in China. What IS material is that there are either explicit (not likely) or hidden (likely) ownership interests by people in the government who stand to benefit. They will benefit if it's a scam or a bona fide export engine and will quietly squirrel the proceeds out of the country. The only people worried about dirty air in China are the impacted citizens and they don't have a shred of political power to influence the outcome.

Re:Maybe electric cars are no good for China at th

[Falconhell]

Or they could plan to charge from home solar, and gain multiple benefits.
I just dont understand the negative attitude to what is a logical technological change.

Re: Maybe electric cars are no good for China at t

[Zorpheus]

It is not logical as long as new coal power plants are built. It is only logical if you ignore where the additional power comes from, or if your place relies on renewable energy.

Re:Maybe electric cars are no good for China at th

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people seem to think that people/cities/companies/countries can only do one thing at a time and that problems need to be solved in a particular order because of that.

Paid Publicity

[BoxRec]

Surely there should be some disclaimer explaining this is a paid for publicity and not a genuine article of interest.

No puns in the subjet title please

[Solandri]

Don't act like a newspaper which needs clever headlines to get you to notice the paper and buy it. We're already reading the site. You don't need to hook us.

Because of the puns, I thought this was a story about some Chinese battery manufacturer which had cracked the quick charge problem (the biggest problem holding back EV battery tech today). Instead it's just another regular battery company getting funding. Thanks for wasting my time.

Re: Maybe electric cars are no good for China at t

[ShanghaiBill]

It is not logical as long as new coal power plants are built.

Chinese coal production and consumption both peaked in 2013, and are declining.
Coal in China.

It is only logical if you ignore where the additional power comes from

Net new production is not coming from coal.

or if your place relies on renewable energy.

China is the world leader in both wind and solar.

"Industrial policy diktats"??

[haruchai]

I don't know what a "diktat" is but it sounds very painful

Yet China's top-down industrial policy diktats - move up the value chain, clean up polluted urban skies, and shift to plug-in cars

Re: Maybe electric cars are no good for China at t

[haruchai]

A little math and you find that per Germany has 15 times more solar capacity per capita

Perhaps because Germany is so sunny? ;-) It must be true because I heard it on Fox News!!
https://youtu.be/fe3vxu9vxAQ?t...

In all seriousness, Germany's early solar efforts are impressive but China (& India) should catch & pass them within 5-10 years.
And then there's solar water heating where China has led not only Germany but ALL of the EU combined and accounts for more than 1/2 the global total.
America has long been a laggard in the adoption of this tech but made significant gains after 2008.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...