Shadowing Practice: Why China is winning the EV war - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In 2024, Ford Motors cut back production on their F -150 Lightning, the electric version of their popular pickup truck.
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Sales on the Lightning had tanked, in part because it cost more than its gas -powered counterpart.
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This isn't just a problem for Ford.
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The average price of a new EV in the U .S is about $55 ,000, making electric cars a hard sell for most U .S consumers at a time
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when EV adoption is critical for our climate goals.
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Roughly 40 % of the cost to produce an electric vehicle is in the battery.
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So in 2023, it was reported that Ford was looking at sites in Virginia
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or Michigan for a new battery plant that could help lower its costs.
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But there's a catch.
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The battery technology you would use is from a company based here, in Fujian Province, China.
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That company is CATL, the largest battery maker in the world.
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Virginia's governor decided to kill the battery plant proposal in his state because of its links to China.
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They are influenced, if not controlled, by the Chinese Communist Party.
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Putting Ford's CEO on the defense.
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Look, this plant is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford.
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them to look elsewhere for a sight.
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This battery plant got caught up in a broader trade war between US and China, a reaction to the extraordinary rise of China's electric vehicle market.
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They make up over half of all EV sales globally.
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and in just a few short years have brought slick and affordable electric cars to the market.
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Key to this rise is the electric vehicle battery.
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This part of the EV is where China has really come to dominate the global market.
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So how did Chinese companies create the world's leading EV battery?
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And can U .S automakers make an affordable electric car without it?
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The first major reason for why China's companies were able to
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develop their EV battery is due to a huge amount of government support.
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Roughly 20 years ago, China was on track to become the world's largest importer of oil.
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So electrifying its car fleet would help it become more energy independent.
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Not to mention a growing air pollution problem in China's cities, in part due to car emissions.
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believer in this.
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And his sense was that Chinese companies were just never going to be able to compete on internal combustion engine technology.
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That's how you get this package of policies that really supported what Chinese government defined as new energy vehicles.
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Companies making the cars can get a subsidy whenever they sell a car.
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We're also talking about they're getting cheap, like, land leases from the government.
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They're getting cheap loans from the state -owned banks.
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According billion in the form of subsidies, research spending, and tax breaks to the EV industry.
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And starting around 2009, local governments also gave Chinese companies an instant market by contracting them to electrify their bus
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and taxi fleets.
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The city of Shenzhen's fleet of 16 ,000 buses was electrified by BYD before it became the world's largest EV company.
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To get consumers on board, governments offer them generous subsidies too, along with other benefits.
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Like discounts on charging, favorable parking, traffic congestion related policies that EVs get a break on.
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EVs actually have a different colored license plate even, so it's very visible and so people see, "Oh, that's an EV." they get all the special treatment.
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But the battery wasn't very good in the early days.
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And so the Chinese government goes in and starts introducing stricter standards of batteries, saying, well, you only qualify for this credit if your battery density reaches this level.
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Consumer EV sales in China exploded.
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And when it did, the government did something important to protect their own battery industry.
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When foreign car companies like GM and Tesla wanted to sell their EVs in China,
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the government made a rule that their cars must use Chinese -made batteries for consumer subsidies.
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China's central government phased out consumer subsidies in 2022, but the demand had been created.
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In 2024, over half of new car sales in China were electric.
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- This is like a milestone, because half is a big thing.
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The majority of the people are actually prefering AVs over Gas Car Stahl.
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The second way Chinese battery companies became so dominant is through the supply chain for the battery components.
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The type of battery that typically goes into electric vehicles is called a lithium -ion battery.
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The four main components of the battery cell are the cathode, the anode, the electrolyte solution, and a separator.
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The cathode is usually packed with nickel, cobalt, and manganese.
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The anode uses graphite, and the electrolyte is made up of mostly lithium salts.
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Over the past several years, Chinese companies started acquiring ownership stakes in mines around the world where these minerals exist.
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"So they're sure that if we control the production, then we control the price." The effect is
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that Chinese companies control significant percentages of the world's supply of the minerals needed for batteries.
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But where China really controls the supply chain are the steps after mining.
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No matter who mines the minerals, China refines a vast majority of them.
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This is the step where factories grind down raw mined materials and extract the desired mineral from it.
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It's pretty polluting.
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That's why you don't see that much refining happening in developed countries.
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Chinese plants then also manufacture the vast majority of the four components of the EV batteries,
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the cathode, the anode, the electrolyte, and the separator, sell.
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Because you already had pretty developed manufacturing for batteries aimed at electronics.
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So BYD is actually one of those examples.
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They started by producing batteries for electronics in the 90s and then it got into producing EVs.
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The U .S was never a battery manufacturing player, historically speaking, a lithium ion.
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It was previously Japan and Korea.
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China has now superseded both.
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China's control of the battery supply chain is so encompassing that
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rules say no more than half of a battery's components or minerals could be Chinese sourced to qualify for tax credits, only an estimated 20 percent of EV models qualified.
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With their market dominance, Chinese companies have been able to lead the world in battery innovation.
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In the past two years, Chinese companies figured out how to avoid using the two most expensive battery minerals: nickel and cobalt.
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They did this by innovating on battery technology called lithium iron phosphate, or LFP.
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In 2023, CATL announced an LFP battery that could power a car for 370 miles on just a 10 -minute charge.
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And BYD has developed their own version of an LFP battery, too.
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blade battery.
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It's like a very thin, very long blade.
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But basically they're saying that by using that shape, it can bring more batteries into the same space.
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So in that way, like the same size of a car can travel farther.
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Today, LFP batteries are a growing share of all EV batteries, and nearly all of them are manufactured in China.
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But not for long.
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CATL has built battery plants in Germany and has plans to build one in Hungary for the European auto market.
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And Ford ended up finding a home for its CATL battery plant in the town of Marshall, Michigan.
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The project has triggered a U .S.
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House investigation, but if it goes through, it will be the first LFP plant in the U .S.
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All of these factors have made Chinese EV batteries virtually impossible to avoid in the global transition to electric vehicles.
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Was there not a viable alternative?
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No, there wasn't.
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LFP technology is very well developed.
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The battery business is a global business.
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And there were no alternatives.
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There are some concerns about whether China's government support of the EV industry amounts to unfair global competition.
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as well as human rights and environmental concerns associated with China's battery supply chain.
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The U .S is investing their own government support to build up its battery industry.
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Bloomberg estimated it would cost $82 billion for the U .S to meet their own domestic demand by 2030.
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So it might be possible in the future, but that's no help right now when we desperately need to transition to electric vehicles to wean ourselves from fossil fuels.
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And U .S automakers are struggling to give consumers affordable options.
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So for now, we'll have to decide whether our desire to keep our distance from China outweighs our goals of going electric.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “Why China is winning the EV war”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: battery, Chinese, China, electric, companies. Deze video bevat 102 zinnen en 1403 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 8:28. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 166 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 80% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| mineral zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈmɪn.ə.ɹəl/ | delfstof, mineraal |
| subsidy zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈsʌbsɪdi/ | subsidie |
| lithium zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈlɪθi.əm/ | lithium |
| cathode zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈkæθ.oʊd/ | kathode |
| electrolyte zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪˈlɛk.tɹəˌlaɪt/ | elektrolyt |
| cobalt zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈkoʊ.bɔlt/ | kobalt |
| nickel zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈnɪk.əl/ | nikkel |
| electronics zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/ | elektronica |
| blade zelfstandig naamwoord | /bleɪd/ | blad, lemmet |
| encompass werkwoord | /ɪnˈkʌmpəs/ | omvatten, bevatten |
| graphite zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɡɹæfaɪt/ | grafiet |
| importer zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪmˈpɔː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/ | importeur |
| innovate werkwoord | /ˈɪn.ə.veɪt/ | vernieuwen, innoveren |
| manganese zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈmæŋ.ɡəˌniz/ | mangaan, manganium |
| supersede werkwoord | /ˌsuːpəˈsiːd/ | vervangen |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| build up werkwoord | opstapelen |
| end up werkwoord | belanden, terechtkomen |
| figure out werkwoord | uitvogelen, er achter komen |
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | have brought · has really come · has now superseded |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | was reported · are influenced · was electrified |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 10 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals they're, wasn't, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De “th”-klanken: lithium /ˈlɪθi.əm/, cathode /ˈkæθ.oʊd/
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: emission /ɪˈmɪʃ.ən/, adoption /əˈdɑp.ʃən/, pollution /pəˈluʃən/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: electrify /ɪˈlɛktɹɪfaɪ/, electrolyte /ɪˈlɛk.tɹəˌlaɪt/, separator /ˈsɛpəˌɹeɪtəɹ/, electronics /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/, favourable /ˈfeɪv(ə)ɹəbəl/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: anode /ˈæn.oʊd/, cathode /ˈkæθ.oʊd/, blade /bleɪd/, manganese /ˈmæŋ.ɡəˌniz/, supersede /ˌsuːpəˈsiːd/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: anode /ˈæn.oʊd/, cathode /ˈkæθ.oʊd/, graphite /ˈɡɹæfaɪt/, manganese /ˈmæŋ.ɡəˌniz/, extract /ˈɛkstɹækt/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: graphite /ˈɡɹæfaɪt/, manganese /ˈmæŋ.ɡəˌniz/, globally /ˈɡloʊbəli/, grind /ˈɡɹaɪnd/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als mineral, subsidy, lithium.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.