OIES Podcast – Are US efforts to de-risk and decarbonise its battery supply chains incompatible?

Podcasts - Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

In this latest OIES China Energy programme podcast, Michal Meidan talks to Brad Simmons about US policies to re-shore and friend-shore lithium-ion battery supply chains and their incompatibility with efforts to limit dependencies on China. They discuss the electric vehicle subsidies under the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and how tax eligibility is complicated by “foreign entity of concern” (FEOC) restrictions which effectively seek to limit China’s market share could slow electrification. Given China’s dominance across these supply chains, disentangling them leads to costly trade-offs. Original equipment manufacturers are increasingly caught in the middle of these geopolitical dynamics, and will be expected to make very substantial changes to sourcing and supply chain configurations along extremely limited timelines. Brad and Michal talk about the hurdles that the IRA tax credit schemes impose across the supply chain: from the geological mismatch in minerals through the cathode supply chain and nickel production in Indonesia and through to the anode supply chain.