For over a decade, China has meticulously orchestrated a strategic ascent in the global electric vehicle (EV) batteries market, culminating in a dominance that now presents a formidable challenge to Western manufacturers.

From government-backed gigafactories to proprietary technology in crucial materials, China has established what one industry expert describes as “almost a moat” around its battery production, leaving Europe and the United States scrambling to catch up.

In an exclusive interview with EE Times, Doron Myersdorf, CEO of the battery technology company StoreDot, offers a stark assessment of the geopolitical and technological landscape. He attributes China’s current position to a “very smart” long-term strategy, initiated over ten years ago, to prioritize Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries.

This foresight capitalized on China’s abundant iron resources and its early development of intellectual property (IP) in producing the composite for liquid fermions.

LFP power play and China’s strategic advantage

China’s calculated shift from Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) to LFP production was not merely a material preference; it was a blueprint for global control. Myersdorf notes that it was “there was a deliberate long-term strategy, conceived a decade ago, to leverage existing supply chains, intellectual property, and operational gigafactories. This foresight has resulted in a global dominance in LFP production today.”

This strategic leverage is evident in the struggles of companies like Northvolt, Europe’s once-heralded battery hope, which, despite significant efforts, was unable to achieve the economies of scale or yield competitive advantages, partly due to its reliance on Chinese equipment and expertise.

Beyond raw material control, China has innovated within LFP chemistry, significantly improving efficiency. By enabling the use of larger LFP cells—a design not feasible with NMC due to safety concerns—Chinese manufacturers developed concepts like BYD’s blade battery and the “cell to pack,” “cell to chassis,” and “cell to body” designs.

These innovations eliminate modules and their associated overhead, a design inherent to NMC. Myersdorf explains that this combination of factors has effectively created “almost a monopoly on LFP” for China, establishing “like a moat for China in dominance of batteries for at least the next 10 years.”

While NMC still offers better performance for high-end vehicles, providing superior range and fast charging—a segment where StoreDot leverages NMC and silicon to deliver technologies like the Polestar 5, capable of charging in 10 minutes, LFP remains the dominant choice for A, B, and C-segment cars, as well as commercial vehicles, primarily due to cost, with supply almost exclusively coming from China.

Another critical component, graphite for anodes, also sees China holding a significant market share, “controlling over 90% percent of the graphite in the market.”

While Myersdorf suggests that graphite might be “easier to compete with” in the long term due to its abundance outside China and less robust IP compared to LFP, he concedes, “This is another nail in the coffin of the West that China very cleverly kind of structured.”

The solid-state illusion and strategic lag

Strategic miscalculations have characterized the West’s response to China’s rising dominance. Myersdorf highlights a “naïve belief in the West that if we bet on solid state batteries, then we can beat China.”

Myersdorf argues that companies like QuantumScape and Solid Power have pursued solid-state technology, aiming for superior energy density and faster charging.

However, this strategy has proven flawed. Solid-state batteries are likely to remain a niche market due to high costs, says Myersdorf. The time required to build capacity (one to two decades for volume production), and the need for entirely new equipment and materials. “If you want to do a solid state, the existing gigafactories in most cases are not relevant,” Myersdorf points out, citing QuantumScape’s need to build a new platform just for separators.

Conversely, China prioritized the refinement of existing lithium-ion technology, continuously driving down costs, strengthening supply chains, and enhancing chemical properties through improved electrolytes and safety mechanisms.

Myersdorf unequivocally states, “I think again strategically the West took a wrong approach of let’s invent the next battery as opposed to let’s improve what’s available, which is what China has done, and now we are at least 10 years behind China.”

Beyond technological bets, a fundamental issue in Europe, according to Myersdorf, has been the slow adoption of electric vehicles by legacy automotive manufacturers. Years of investment in internal combustion engine technology fostered an inertia, leading them to produce electric models reluctantly rather than actively selling them.

The power of vertical integration and rise of Chinese EVs

A critical differentiator for successful EV players like Tesla and BYD is their approach to vertical integration of battery production. “The battery is about half the vehicle. It’s basically an electric vehicle is a battery with a bunch of software and design,” Myersdorf asserts.

Western manufacturers, often separating vehicle and battery production, incur “added cost because there’s another in between mediator for the battery,” and crucially, “they don’t control the technology.”

This integrated approach, often supported by the Chinese government, enables a “hyperlocal kind of supply chain” and efficient vehicle assembly.

The result is a flood of competitive Chinese cars in global markets. Myersdorf observes this firsthand in Israel, where “seven new Chinese brands” have appeared on the street in the last year alone, with people actively buying them. He notes that the perceived “problem of quality” for Chinese cars is diminishing, while the price difference between a Mercedes and a Zeekr high-end EV can be over 200%.

This trend poses a “huge problem for the western, not only the European, but also the Americans,” as they “didn’t shift or pivot their thinking to what is an electric vehicle.”

The “lack of strategy and the confusion” leave the future of large European OEMs uncertain, with Myersdorf questioning, “who knows if there’ll be any large OEMs in Europe that are making money in five years?”

Western companies look abroad amid domestic uncertainty

Domestic policy uncertainties exacerbate the challenges for Western battery companies. U.S. battery material makers like Group14 are increasingly “shopping abroad” for manufacturing opportunities, citing “waning support for clean technologies at home.”

Group14, a silicon-battery materials maker, took full control of its manufacturing in South Korea to gain “direct access” to the Asian market, where “90% of battery production is within a four-hour flight” of its facility. The company delayed its U.S. facility opening due to “tariff uncertainty and question marks over whether a plant to create silane…would receive public funding.”

Similarly, California-based Lyten acquired the remaining European assets of the bankrupt Swedish battery maker Northvolt, including its main factory, R&D facility in Sweden, and a future gigafactory site in Germany, for a “significant discount” to its previous valuation of $5 billion.

Lyten plans to immediately restart operations and rehire a significant portion of Northvolt’s workforce, aiming to supply “European cells” to customers like Volvo and BMW, who had previously signed deals with Northvolt.

Thomas Kavanagh, head of battery materials at Argus Media, summarizes the sentiment, stating, “It makes sense for American companies to look elsewhere for their battery material investments…Other regions are ahead of the U.S. in battery technology and innovation thanks to unpredictable political cycles and consumer skepticism on electrification.”

Amidst this global repositioning, companies like StoreDot are pushing forward with advanced lithium-ion technologies. StoreDot’s focus is on Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) batteries, a “key differentiator” for EV mass adoption, aiming to deliver “100 miles (160km) charged in 5min.” Their silicon-dominant XFC batteries promise “consistent, reliable charging rate regardless of battery’s state of charge” and “no degradation due to fast charging.”

The strategic investment in improving existing, proven lithium-ion chemistry stands in contrast to the West’s past “naïve belief” in the quick fix of entirely new battery architectures.

The current landscape highlights China’s well-executed, long-term strategy, which has yielded a commanding lead in the EV battery market. For Western manufacturers, the path forward requires not just technological innovation but a fundamental shift in strategic thinking, market approach, and a renewed commitment to vertical integration and robust domestic industrial policy to avoid being left further behind.

By: DocMemory
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