Anjani Trivedi

Are Investors Betting on the Wrong EV Batteries?

With all the mushrooming battery technologies, it isn’t easy picking winners. However, the latest bold bet on the next new powerpack looks to have gone awry. The world’s biggest battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, unveiled the sodium-ion powerpack last year with much…

Why Your First Electric Car Might Be Chinese

Tesla Inc. would have delivered more cars in the most recent quarter but for a shortage of boats. It’s having problems finding vessel capacity out of Shanghai. No wonder: China recently overtook Germany as the world’s second-largest auto exporter. China’s auto exports rose over 50% in the first…

China Sets the Rules of the Road

Even as autonomous-vehicle technology gets better, the thought of being in a driverless car is as scary as a few years ago. The news around faulty experiments makes that worse. Big, bold plans of intelligent auto self-navigation aren’t where they were forecast to be. Except in China. Much like…

Apple Changed Its Mind. So Who’s On the Hook?

Apple Inc. is pulling back from plans to increase production of its new iPhones this year. Instead, it will produce about as many as the prior year, in line with its original forecast. Fair enough — a looming global recession and strong dollar probably mean consumers outside the US will feel the…

Tesla’s Big Batteries Aren’t the Fire Problem. Lithium Is

When a Tesla Inc. battery caught fire at an energy storage facility that helps power California last week, critics were quick to pounce. Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame, who called the mid-2000s housing collapse correctly, hit out at the EV maker. Blaming Elon Musk’s firm for a bad battery…

Why Are EVs Still So Expensive? Blame the Makers

How much does it actually cost to build an electric car? As new EV makers burn through billions of dollars of cash and pour hundreds of millions more into research and development, the answer, it seems, is a lot. And all that money hasn’t moved the world much closer to mass adoption. EVs are…

Supply Chains Aren’t Broken, at Least Not Everywhere

The world is fretting over the demise of global supply chains and the threat of deglobalization, with the US trying to lure manufacturing activity back home — or at least closer. Yet supply chains have actually evolved for the better in some places — particularly in Asia — despite all the…

A New Chinese EV Battery Giant Has Emerged

As countries across the world look to grab their share of the electric vehicle supply chain in a rush to go green, energy storage is becoming a key battleground. To add to the pressure, yet another large Chinese battery player is emerging. China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology Co., or CALB,…

Getting to Top Spot Isn’t Easy for China's BYD

Backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., China’s biggest electric-vehicle maker BYD Co. posted stellar first-half earnings on Monday. But it’s struggling with battery-production costs. It isn’t just about raw materials or other components, about which many manufacturers are…

Good Luck Taking Away China’s Manufacturing Mojo

There’s been a lot of talk of shifting the manufacturing supply chain away from China. Other countries want to cut their dependence on the world’s biggest factory floor, wary that Beijing is wielding too much power over the global economy. Rebuilding manufacturing and replacing China, though, isn’t…