South Korean billionaire Chey Tae-won said geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China have kept prices for electric car batteries higher for longer as his conglomerate looks to reduce its reliance on the world’s second-largest economy.
"Due to the geopolitics and the supply chain, the schedule has been changed,” Chey, the chairman of SK Group, said in a rare interview. "Without that, actually, I could have lowered down much more the cost of the battery side.”
The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act means the car industry cannot source materials from China if it wants to receive the full benefit from tax credits for EVs — even though key resources needed for their batteries are found in China. Batteries are expensive and account for around 40% of an electric car’s price tag.