Yeah…there’s actually a bunch of e bike companies that are US based that do all the design and spec work in the US and are built at various places overseas. EBC builds em in the US, using mostly overseas parts. As far as “design generations” go the US is one of the global leaders. Juiced and Rad Power have both been making e bikes for 15 years, bucko.
They refine a lot, but hardly have most of the lithium. Most of the bigger mining operations are out of Chile or Austrailia. The largest known lithium deposit is in the USA around Oregon. They haven’t started mining that one, yet. 20 to 40 million metric tons of mineable lithium.
Lithium mining afaik is terrible for the environment and would almost definitely have american environmentalists in a snafu. It strikes me as the kind of thing that NIMBYism prevents us from taking advantage of. (Despite the fact that people have already displaced by climate change and we’re putting tariffs on the goods used to reduce emissions)
The US can make them, they’ll just cost $10,000 and be several design generations behind the world market.
Yeah…there’s actually a bunch of e bike companies that are US based that do all the design and spec work in the US and are built at various places overseas. EBC builds em in the US, using mostly overseas parts. As far as “design generations” go the US is one of the global leaders. Juiced and Rad Power have both been making e bikes for 15 years, bucko.
The problem isn’t the bikes, the problem is the lithium.
China controls a lot of the worlds lithium, and most of its refining.
They refine a lot, but hardly have most of the lithium. Most of the bigger mining operations are out of Chile or Austrailia. The largest known lithium deposit is in the USA around Oregon. They haven’t started mining that one, yet. 20 to 40 million metric tons of mineable lithium.
And most of the largest mines are operated by Chengdu or Ganfeng. It’s modern colonialism.
May not be Chinese soil, but the deed is to China none the less.
Lithium mining afaik is terrible for the environment and would almost definitely have american environmentalists in a snafu. It strikes me as the kind of thing that NIMBYism prevents us from taking advantage of. (Despite the fact that people have already displaced by climate change and we’re putting tariffs on the goods used to reduce emissions)