Unless China and Japan can sort out their shit and the exportation of rare earth elements can proceed into Japan, the future of electric cars could be thrown into jeopardy. Production of cars like the Prius could slow down dangerously.
According to the New York Times, a tiff between China and Japan over the capture of a Chinese fishing trawler captain after he was caught fishing in Japanese waters (and then collided into two Coast Guard ships) has escalated to the point where China is reportedly refusing to export the sought-after elements for use in electric car manufacturing.
Cars such as Toyota’s Prius use 1kg of neodymium and up to 15kg of lanthanum (pictured) per unit in production, and with China holding 90 per cent of the world’s neodymium under lock and key, Japan will be wanting to sort out this “business matter” fairly quickly.
According to China’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economics, nothing amiss has happened – but if Japan doesn’t get anywhere with their talks, they may be forced to take it up with the World Trade Organisation. [NYT via Salon]
Image Credit: Thermograde
glennc
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 9:31 AMchina will be a major problem for the world in about 5 years.
Fei
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 10:43 AMIf by that you meant a country has its own independant says, then as a Chinese I feel my country is too soft and too slow to achieve what you are expecting. Will a problematic-to-be country let another country’s government kidnap the fishing boating captain? I think not.
Jeff
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 10:43 AMAgreed, People are worried about war with them, but they will simply buy us out……. we already buy everything from them as it is, they we use the profit they make off us, to buy us………..
Blink
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 10:54 AMyeah, they’ve got a long grudge list to clear
gdansk
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 12:02 PMcommunism leads to only a dead end road. for now, it makes the chinese strong for they have a idealogy to follow, but wait till you say NO to them, or speak your mind. with the world investing in china, it certainly is a worry what will happen with them, to us, and the rest of the world dependent on their resources.
simon
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 12:22 PMDid I read that right? 1KG of ne
6688PP
Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 10:31 AMDO NOT OFFEND OVER SOMETHING IF YOU WISH TO ACQUIRE SOMETHING FROM THE SAME PERSON. THIS IS OLD CHINESE SAYING…NOBODY OWES YOU ANYTHING!