Connected appliances are great, as long as the connection is completely local.

Protecting? From whom? He was getting subsidies before the Chinese electric auto industry even existed.

My statement is plain and easy-to-understand. The summary is fear-mongering, making it look like we're going to somehow fall behind China because we aren't buying enough of their stuff (since obviously we aren't building solar panels for ourselves anymore).

No because you're still beholden to a hostile foreign power for all your electrical generation. Once they cut you off, you can't deploy anything further or maintain your existing deployments.

Do you really think utilities want "90% of their rated output" at any point of deployment? Seriously? No.

https://coldwellsolar.com/what...

Expect replacements at the 25-year mark, possibly less for panels incidentally damaged (hail storms, tornadoes, other problems).

Not if they cut you off, you can't.

Scare tactic or not, nobody's building solar panels or producing polysilicon in the US anymore, so it's not like anyone's losing ground to China by not buying their shit.

And it's VERY VERY VERY much subsidized with the intention of destroying foreign competition. Now they have overcapacity in the sector (and in others):

https://oilprice.com/Latest-En...

Dunno how you got modded +5 Informative with this reactionary schlock.

Duh. BMW and Toyota. They have squandered years of development time. BYD is producing solid-state batteries in small batches for engineering tests, and they're scaling up the production now. They are expecting production rollout around 2027, with gradual scaling over the next several years.

At the same time, CATL is already producing LFPs with 200Wh/kg system density, enough for a 400-mile range on a typical EV ( https://www.catl.com/en/news/6... ). And the sodium-ion cells are at around 140Wh/kg, comparable to Li-Ion batteries in Teslas just 10 years ago with 200Wh/kg cells announced this year!

We might end up not even _needing_ solid-state batteries for most needs. I actually expect them to be used only for devices that need high energy density, like wearables and phones.

Nobody's ceding the "global energy future" to China. China is already the global leader in production of state-subsidized solar panels and polycrystalline silicon. If you buy their panels, you're further cementing their position of dominance (and guaranteeing that you will need to go back to them 15-25 years later whenever you need replacement panels).

Meanwhile YouTube is offering buyouts to their entire staff. Haven't seen it reported here, but:

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/2...

(maybe I just missed an earlier post about it, regardless the phenomena are likely related and a sign of what's to come for YouTube)

You have it backwards. The lesson to China is: DO steal European companies (and their secrets). DO make the EU more dependent on Chinese industry.

No, that's what you have when you let critical infrastructure be sold to an extremely hostile foreign power.

Rare earth mining is messy business. There are plenty of sources of rare earths outside of China, but nobody really wants to go through the process of digging up and refining all those minerals.

Most automotive modules aren't using cutting-edge nodes anyway. There are still plenty of chips being made on 40-90nm processes.

Probably not. That's something they could do in-house.