I'm very interested in BYD. Safer battery tech, and no fascist leadership destroying my country.
But first I need to finish driving my 2011 Prius into the ground; it's still working great and no point in getting a new car just to have one. I mostly potter about town so it's largely electric -- last filled the gas tank in September so I'm polluting very little. And I do have solar panels for future use.
Good point Gerald, I would like to point out that the US has been spying on us for years. Edward Snowdon is a good read. Turbine and Turmoil scared the life out of me. We freely trade our personal data at will with almost all companies we deal with. If you use social media Facebook, Instagram, X etc they have your data and more than likely share it with the government and nefarious companies for money. Do I want to share my data with China or indeed any government, No! Do they already have it. Of course they do. China knowing I popped to Tesco last Thursday for 40 mins or went to see great aunt Joan in Clacton in April, I don’t think is of interest. Oh if you have a smart phone, your gps coordinates are freely visible and available to any and all apps and if you phone a company that can interrogate data they will know the phone make, model, software version, longitude and attitude and if you’ve been on their website in the last three days or indeed anybody else’s. I know this as I work in telecommunications and have installed such systems in most banks
I think the concern is beyond the gathering of information and using that for purposes such as industrial abd political espionage.
The issue is the possibility of deliberate disruption, such as taking off line services and "jamming up" the road system by disabling large numbers of vehicles at key points. Obviously this would at a crisis point between the UK and Chinese government.
But equally they could just threaten to do it when trying to achieve another aim.
Whilst the spying by the US is unacceptable, this Chinese threat is at a wholly different scale.
Precisely, the one thing we can say about vehicle batteries now is they do NOT contain Nickel or Cobalt. And after the torrent of negative press releases by the fossil fuel industry about child slaves in the DRC (which was true of course) they always forgot to mention that one of the biggest consumers of cobalt outside the electronics and steel industry is oil refining.
Cobalt is used in large amounts to remove sulphur from diesel and petrol, still, to this day. Nothing has changed or ever will change while we reefine billions of barrels of toxic fuel every day.
I've been an EV driver for 6 years and Will never switch back..... but I am increasingly concerned about chinese tech in all sorts of situations. UK Gov followed a number of other western Governments and told all our telecommunications companies to phase out any chinese kit in their networks.
It appears there are genuine and not unreasonable concerns that there are grounds to suspect that kit in chinese cars and components supplied to other manufacturers, can be used for tracking and intelligence gathering, with the added possibility of remote disabling of vehicles.
This extends to other areas such as energy installations and even traffic lights.
I'm not sure how much we as individuals should be concerned but I'd like to hear more from Government.
I suspect that people have zeroed in on the security threat of green energy items because there's some political bias against them. There may be security issues with Chinese equipment, I don't know, but as a Danish study of Chinese solar equipment found that the problem is with circuit boards in general from China, not such solar or I presume EVs. See https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/05/danish-energy-sector-probes-unauthorized-components-amid-cyber-concerns/ Circuit boards are used in most types of electrical equipment. So if this really is a problem, you're probably already using something from China. So I wouldn't get any more fired up about Chinese cars compared to anything else.
Very good Robert. I’m going to sell (hopefully) my Tesla and buy a BYD. They look decent and the reviews are good. Keep up the good fight
I'm very interested in BYD. Safer battery tech, and no fascist leadership destroying my country.
But first I need to finish driving my 2011 Prius into the ground; it's still working great and no point in getting a new car just to have one. I mostly potter about town so it's largely electric -- last filled the gas tank in September so I'm polluting very little. And I do have solar panels for future use.
Dear Robert. I quoted you in my latest blog post. See 'How Trump is helping China by opposing green energy' https://davidtoke.substack.com/p/how-trump-is-helping-china-by-opposing
Good point Gerald, I would like to point out that the US has been spying on us for years. Edward Snowdon is a good read. Turbine and Turmoil scared the life out of me. We freely trade our personal data at will with almost all companies we deal with. If you use social media Facebook, Instagram, X etc they have your data and more than likely share it with the government and nefarious companies for money. Do I want to share my data with China or indeed any government, No! Do they already have it. Of course they do. China knowing I popped to Tesco last Thursday for 40 mins or went to see great aunt Joan in Clacton in April, I don’t think is of interest. Oh if you have a smart phone, your gps coordinates are freely visible and available to any and all apps and if you phone a company that can interrogate data they will know the phone make, model, software version, longitude and attitude and if you’ve been on their website in the last three days or indeed anybody else’s. I know this as I work in telecommunications and have installed such systems in most banks
I think the concern is beyond the gathering of information and using that for purposes such as industrial abd political espionage.
The issue is the possibility of deliberate disruption, such as taking off line services and "jamming up" the road system by disabling large numbers of vehicles at key points. Obviously this would at a crisis point between the UK and Chinese government.
But equally they could just threaten to do it when trying to achieve another aim.
Whilst the spying by the US is unacceptable, this Chinese threat is at a wholly different scale.
This is fascinating. So the sodium batteries aren't dependent on massive human rights abuses in mineral-rich societies like DRC?
Precisely, the one thing we can say about vehicle batteries now is they do NOT contain Nickel or Cobalt. And after the torrent of negative press releases by the fossil fuel industry about child slaves in the DRC (which was true of course) they always forgot to mention that one of the biggest consumers of cobalt outside the electronics and steel industry is oil refining.
Cobalt is used in large amounts to remove sulphur from diesel and petrol, still, to this day. Nothing has changed or ever will change while we reefine billions of barrels of toxic fuel every day.
Funny they never mention that.
Fascinated, but Sodium is less energy dense?
And I need a battery that can take high temperature
I've been an EV driver for 6 years and Will never switch back..... but I am increasingly concerned about chinese tech in all sorts of situations. UK Gov followed a number of other western Governments and told all our telecommunications companies to phase out any chinese kit in their networks.
It appears there are genuine and not unreasonable concerns that there are grounds to suspect that kit in chinese cars and components supplied to other manufacturers, can be used for tracking and intelligence gathering, with the added possibility of remote disabling of vehicles.
This extends to other areas such as energy installations and even traffic lights.
I'm not sure how much we as individuals should be concerned but I'd like to hear more from Government.
https://inews.co.uk/news/electric-cars-chinese-parts-banned-from-military-sites-spying-fears-3644639
https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/i-was-head-of-mi6-here-s-how-china-can-shut-down-uk-cities/ar-AA1Fk04R
I suspect that people have zeroed in on the security threat of green energy items because there's some political bias against them. There may be security issues with Chinese equipment, I don't know, but as a Danish study of Chinese solar equipment found that the problem is with circuit boards in general from China, not such solar or I presume EVs. See https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/05/danish-energy-sector-probes-unauthorized-components-amid-cyber-concerns/ Circuit boards are used in most types of electrical equipment. So if this really is a problem, you're probably already using something from China. So I wouldn't get any more fired up about Chinese cars compared to anything else.