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The World Ahead | Business in 2024

EVs are poised to make China the world’s biggest car exporter

Its lead in battery-making is crucial

Aerial view of new electric cars parked at a manufacturing facility in China.
Saving the planetImage: Getty Images

By Hal Hodson

Combustion engines in motor vehicles account for about 15% of carbon-dioxide emissions each year. Eliminating them requires the electrification of transport, which in turn requires batteries in unprecedented quantities. In 2024 the outlines of a new global battery-production infrastructure will come into focus in China, Europe and America—a network of factories capable of churning out batteries in sufficient amounts to store the energy required to propel the global fleet of vehicles.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “China charges ahead”

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