The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech-funded think tank, has been banging the drum since 2012 for the United States to focus on battery development. A report it released in July said the U.S. response to China on electric vehicles “should include investing in R&D to accelerate technological innovation, stimulating consumer adoption of E.V.s (e.g., by deploying charging infrastructure) and defensive trade measures.”
I spoke to the report’s author, Stephen Ezell, the foundation’s vice president for global innovation policy, about where the battery race between the United States and China is headed. “Tech policy scholars are going to look back on this in 20 years as a test case of whether more muscular policies can succeed,” he said. “I think so long as we do make it a national priority, we can succeed.”
