After years of hype and rapid growth, the electric vehicle industry is entering a more complex phase. Technologies such as solid-state batteries to next-gen charging networks are on the horizon, while competition is intensifying, margins are tightening and policy support in many markets are shifting.
When will EVs move from early adoption to true market dominance and what will it take to get there?
At Davos, leaders from government, industry and academia argued that EV “dominance” hinges less on hype and more on policy stability, charging convenience, and resilient mineral supply chains. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said the U.S. advantage is manufacturing depth and workforce capability, but warned that “chaotic policies…coming out of Washington” are pausing long-lived investments. BYD’s Stella Li attributed China’s lead to consistent commitment: policies “never change,” enabling scale and innovation that has pushed EV penetration to 52% in 2025, now “driven by consumer” rather than subsidies.
Harvard’s Elaine Buckberg emphasized that China combined production and consumer incentives with regulatory certainty that fits automakers’ decade-long product cycles, while Europe remains the adoption leader in markets like Norway. Across regions, consumer hesitation is still dominated by “some form of charging fear,” making infrastructure and faster charging decisive. Li argued megawatt “flash charging” can make charging “as fast as gas,” but interoperability and vehicle readiness must follow.
Vale CEO Gustavo Pimenta reframed EV competition as a minerals challenge: “50 to 60% of the battery cost comes from the minerals,” yet new mines can take 15 years and face licensing and trust barriers. He called licensing the key bottleneck and stressed traceable, responsible mining and recycling to secure public support and investment.
Good morning and welcome to this World Economic Forum special event. I'm Dan Murphy from CNBC. I'm very pleased to welcome this excellent panel today and all of you in this room for today's session, which is called can EVs Really Dominate? Today we're going to be talking about who is winning, who is falling behind, and who ultimately controls the supply chains underpinning the EV transition. As competition between the United States, China and Europe ultimately heats up. Of course, not just in manufacturing, but also in critical minerals, batteries and industrial policy. I'm very pleased to welcome an expert panel and let's say, an outstanding group. Joining me here on stage here at the World Economic Forum, the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, is here. She is overseeing the transformation of one of the world's most important automotive and manufacturing regions as it adapts to the electric vehicle era. Governor, welcome. Thanks for being here. Gustavo Pimenta is the CEO of Valle. Valle is a global supplier of critical minerals that underpins electric vehicles, batteries and the broader energy transition. So welcome. Stella Lee is the executive vice president of BYD. Stella is one of the most influential executives in the global EV industry. She's been central to the company's rise as the world's largest electric vehicle maker by volume. And Elaine Buchberg is also here. Elaine, welcome. She brings a capital markets and policy perspective to the EV transition as the former chief economist at GM. So let's dive straight into the conversation. Governor, first to you from a US perspective, where would you say America genuinely has an edge today in the EV race.
Coming from the state of Michigan? You know, we produce over 20% of the autos in the US, and we're very proud of that. We also recognize that there are a lot of, headwinds right now politically on on the home front, but we've been really bullish about making sure that we're diversifying. And I was just at the Detroit auto show the other day. There's a host of both, internal combustion engine vehicles and EVs, Bev vehicles. I think it's exciting to see the transition continue to happen. Although, I, for one, would like to see us continue to move as fast as we can. Right now in the States, it's important that we've got a diversity of choices for, for consumers. So we're we're very focused on making sure we've got the skills to support that, that the companies can be competitive while they pursue both. And that's been a central focus of our work at the state level.
So that's what's happening at the state level in the United States. I wanted to bring Stella Lee into the conversation next on this, because Stella BYD has scaled faster than almost any other EV company globally and of course, increasingly outside of China as well. Why would you say that China has been so successful from from your vantage point, what has mattered most here is that technology breakthroughs. Is it manufacturing scale? Is it policy alignment as well? Because clearly there is a competition intensifying between the United States and China here. And I would contend that China probably has the lead. Governor.
I think a staff from the government policy, you see the China's EV policy, new energy policy, or even you can think about the total is the commitment to reduce CO2 and the climate change. And the Paris commitment took a very strong action in past 20 years. They never change. But some countries back and forth. This will confuse manufacturing. So then once the government gave very clear line and then manufacturing going to work on the competition. But you see the funny thing, EV is not only changing the battery vehicle replace Ice car, but it's bringing a lot of innovation, a lot of creative stuff like autonomous driving, AI, technology. And there was people grow like we used to work in the 5G, the high tech and the cell phone. Then we're in the digital world. But then electric car gave the best platform to for any innovation you have then. Plus this one is you have a lot of it company jump into the race and they are not traditional car company. They came in, they are thinking is the IT industry. So this will bring a lot of competition. So then in China, because the consumer being advocate for the EV is more is safer and then it's better. It's saving the money. And also in the performance it's better performance. So then they jump to this kind of race and no longer depend on government subsidy. Now like we just finished 2025. In China EV penetration is 52%. So that's huge. Once any penetration more than 30% then it's driven by consumer because they buy the cars, because high technology and a lot of creative stuff, a lot of innovation there. And then this boosts the demand. So then the second layer you're talking about like a global supply chain, you see that this becomes the global support. One way the more electric car autonomous driving benefit US chipset company like Nvidia Jensen Huang is the happiest guy in the planet now. Yeah. So then also you are the happiest person because we're going to consume a lot of copper, a lot of lithium, a lot of different mining. But then it's from Brazil, from American Latin country. So just the process is in China. So I think this bring the like the supply chain automatically bring the global supply chain together.
Excellent point Stella. Governor, I'll have you respond to that as well. Did you want to reply to what I mentioned before about China perhaps having the EV lead here? What do you think China is getting right that the United States can learn from?
Well, I appreciate what Stella said with regard to having a very clear and static policy that has been encouraged and and fed early on, and now it's taken off and it's driven by consumers. I think that's one thing that the United States has not done. And that is I think the the back and forth policies at the national level have have made it more difficult for industry to throw all in and, and ramp up the way that, that some of the Chinese companies have been able to. And I think that's something that we're working to overcome. But alas, I am the governor of Michigan, not the president of the United States. And so I think that that's something we're trying to de-risk, but has been something that set us apart and made it harder in the States.
Do you think the current US tariffs are actually benefiting China?
Oh, we could have a couple hours to talk about tariffs. But I think that there's tariffs have a have a place but it has to have a strategy behind them, a goal that's been articulated. There is no question that the, the chaotic policies that we've been seeing coming out of Washington, D.C., have created a lot of hardship, not just in the auto industry, but for consumers in the United States and obviously for relationships globally. I think there's a lot of downsides to the way that they've been implemented in in the last 12 months.
Let's talk about another angle here. And, Elaine, I want you to come in on this as well. When you assess this dynamic here, obviously we're talking about this in the microcosm of the US and China in the EV supply chain. What do you think Western governments and automakers struggle most with when they try and replicate the coordination that Stella talked about inside China today?
So it's not just coordination. China has used a wide array of policy instruments going back at least a decade, to both incentivize production, incentivize battery production. So subsidizing both those and incentivizing the consumer. And to give an example of how power these these are in a market where half the new vehicle purchases are someone either buying for the first time or adding a second car in the biggest cities in the country, you can't get a license plate. You can't register that car without, it being a new energy vehicle, either a Bev, a pure battery electric vehicle, or a plug in hybrid. So that really drives the consumer in that direction. So they've been willing to spend more. And if you look at a report out of MIT center for Economic and Energy Policy Research, that shows the spending has been much higher. But there is that stable policy commitment. And one of the most powerful things in terms of incentivizing the product that automakers bring to the table, is these long term plans for greenhouse gas and fuel economy regulation that compel the automakers to plan what vehicles they're going to bring into market? US automakers. When I was at GM, typical planning process is five years before a vehicle comes into market and you're planning to keep it there for six years. So keeping those incentives stable, that's really powerful. That's a place where the US is really pulling back under the Trump administration and either making or planning to make those incentives easier in Europe is considering the same thing. But I want to make the point, as we sit here in Europe, that China produces more EVs and sells more EVs than anywhere else in the world, but the leading markets in terms of adoption are here in Europe. So Norway is at about 90% pure battery electric vehicles as a share of sales. And that's had spillover effects. So neighboring Denmark is at two thirds. Sweden's on par.
65.
Right around 35%. And even within the US we've got really different markets. And Colorado and California are running around 26%. So not far from China.
So what do you think needs to happen to change that consumer cultural narrative as well? Because clearly buying trends are ultimately, the consumer's choice at the end of the day as well, EV adoption in states and countries that are perhaps more climate conscious is accelerating. But of course, that's not everywhere.
Well, I think one thing is that technology continues to improve. So we have to recognize there's somewhat different use cases. So in the US we drive the most. We're really spread out in our suburbs. We do more road trips because we have relatively poor rail. So the use case is different. And so people want bigger, bigger vehicles, bigger ranges. And that just means getting that closing. That price gap between EV and Ice is harder. But I think it's the technology. So BYD and Catl brought out new battery and charging technology that BYD's actually got in market. That's megawatt charging. So you can charge that Bev just as fast.
Like five minutes, 400.
It's just like getting gas. So that whole.
As a faster as a refueling that's what big game changer right.
So that technology change makes EVs a more perfect substitute for the internal combustion engine vehicle. People are are comfortable with solid state batteries. They're starting to come limited production. It's supposed to be in market this year. And I think also in a market in the markets. The tip everyone knows that they're really fun to drive. I feel like I don't say that enough. EVs are really fun to drive. They accelerate really well. They're quiet, they're smooth and intelligent. Yeah. And then for people who can charge at home, you don't even go to the gas station.
A quick show of hands. Who in the room actually owns an EV? Raise your hand if you have an electric vehicle. Very good. Okay, that's really interesting, governor. What type of car do you have?
I haven't driven in eight years.
If you could buy one, would you buy an EV?
EV or hybrid? Yes. That's going to be the next car that I buy when I'm back to being a private citizen next year.
Okay, there we go. Let's talk about one of the other key challenges here, which is in the supply chain. And perhaps this is the most important part as well, Gustavo, the World Economic Forum actually predicts that by 2035, EVs are projected to account for 80% of total lithium demand, 50% of cobalt and 30% of rare earth elements demand overall. So everything we've discussed on this stage comes back to minerals. It depends on minerals as well. Our critical minerals supply the real foundation. Do you think of EV leadership?
Well, yeah. So I think this is one of the key challenges that that we all face. 50 to 60% of the battery cost comes from the minerals. When you look at the total cost of the EV car, also a large portion comes from minerals, and we are at a time where it's been harder and harder to find new mines, to develop new mines. They are taking longer. So about 15 years, depending on, the market between the time from discovery to bring those projects online. And one fundamental, one of the most fundamental issues that I think we have to address to be able to accelerate this transition, to make sure the cars get cheaper. And that's one thing that BYD and others have been able to do. And the only way we'll be able to do this, so we don't need to have no need to depend on subsidies, balance sheets, especially in an environment of high interest costs and so on, is by making sure that we have the most efficient supply chain and we can bring those minerals quicker to the marketplace. Right. And this is one of the most pressing issues that we face. And to your earlier point, there is a lot of, need for government support in terms of expediting licensing. For example, licenses are taking longer partnerships. I don't think anyone will be able to resolve this by itself. So, for example, we are one of the largest suppliers of critical minerals, but we depend downstream. We depend on our clients to be able to buy it on a consistent basis. So there is a lot of things that we have to work to make sure that supply chain becomes resilient, but more than that becomes efficient. So we can drive costs down. And at the end we can accelerate the deployment of EVs globally.
A lot of policymakers talk about the concentration risk in the, critical minerals supply chain. Interestingly, as well, that supply is so highly concentrated. Now, there's only three countries that own approximately 90% or more of the mining and processing capacity in those three minerals that I mentioned before. Is that a concern for you?
It is, it is it is an element of concern, certainly. If you look at, for example, many of those, refining facilities today, are concentrated in very few markets. If you take the nickel business, which is a very important one in this overall equation. Indonesia, for example, produces 60 plus percent of the market, needs today. And you see that in many of the critical minerals. So there is a lot of talk these days about bifurcation, trying to create resilient supply chains and identify new suppliers. It is hard. It's easier said than done because this is an industry of heavy capital deployment, that tends over the years to favor where you can buy the commodity at the lowest price. Right. And that's what drives efficiency scale and so on. So there will be a need for a different setup. And we are starting to see some of it where clients and upstream suppliers get into a long term agreements, for example, define certain pricing parameters that give other suppliers the ability to develop new mines. So we have to think differently. Otherwise we always favor the prior model, which is efficient scale and will continue to be highly concentrated if you don't. If you don't want to be dependent on particular markets for any critical minerals, we'll have to incentivize and create other types of agreements for new mines to be developed, new structures to be developed. So we have a resilient supply chain.
And to my question to Governor Whitmer, earlier, the World Economic Forum also says that Geoeconomic confrontation is the number one risk for 2026. So when you assess this current geoeconomic backdrop, also in context of the conversation we've just had between the United States and China, does this ultimately impact where you're deploying capital in the year ahead, and how are you assessing those risks?
It isn't. It is a new element that I think all the CEOs are thinking about and assessing. I mean, look, when we put a mine together, we invest for 30, 40 years, right? And that mine can't move. Once I decided to put mine in a particular geography, that that mine will stay there for the next decades. So we really have to make sure that, we believe on the long term fundamentals of that development. So those elements, the geopolitical elements are fundamental because you don't want to invest and afterwards have no market to deploy your product. So it is a critical element that I think other CEOs are, thinking about. I think Brazil positions itself well in that regard because Brazil is perceived and it is in fact a neutral from that perspective country that has business and does business with the US for many, many years, with, with China, many other important clients and countries. So I think we position us well, for us, this could be actually a good opportunity to accelerate the agenda that we have in terms of growing the supply of critical minerals.
And when you think about the critical minerals universe today, from your lens in the C-suite, what would you say is the biggest challenge that you need to solve in the next 3 to 5 years?
For me, the key challenge today is licensing. And it comes back to an issue that miners that's now talking on our side here have to do a better, a better job. The reality is mining has a challenge in terms of perception from society. When you rank mining vis a vis any other sector, we are ranked one of the lowest in terms of reputation for many reasons, many because, the miners caused disasters, accidents and so on. So we have to be able to show to society that we are not only essential because there is no AI, there is no EV. There is. I mean, everything that we want to do depending on mine, if we are having this conversation today, something was mined. If we got here, something was mine. So it's essential and it's going to be even more essential in the next several decades. What we have to make sure is that we can convince society that we are not only essential, but what we do makes the world better, that we can do proper mining, we can do more recycling, we can use less of the environment. We can use less, we can use less water. So it's, I think, on our side here to also demonstrate that miner is a cool thing. It's good and it can be done properly without any environmental impact. In fact we can do and we have cases in Brazil where we have net preservation. So we actually preserve more than we use for our own operations. So and that touches on licensing because at the end, licensing it is the key bottleneck for most of the markets. It's the case of the US, it is the case of Brazil and many others being able to address them and being able to bring society to understand the importance of accelerating the licensing of good projects. Responsible projects is fundamental.
Okay, so make mining great again, if you will. Interesting. Let me open it up to the floor here. What are we missing when it comes to the critical minerals issue here? Elaine, you had your hand up. Perhaps you can go first.
Well, I was actually going to go somewhere else, but can I just jump in and say we should talk about charging?
Let's do it.
Because charging is one of the biggest holdbacks to adoption. And so in the US, J.D. power does surveys of new vehicle buyers who didn't buy an EV every single quarter. Four out of the top five reasons are some form of charging fear. And so having ample public charging is really critical to adoption. And China's been very successful. The European countries that, you know, Sweden and Denmark are very successful. That's one of the other big critical things in terms of driving adoption.
Okay.
So rolling out, charging.
Establishing the charging infrastructure, network and grid.
Taking away the fear factor about charging anxiety, super critical to getting people. Most people don't do road trips, but they think they might. Yeah.
Stella.
I can add something here because in China the government did support to add almost four times more charging place than the gasoline station. But during the holiday season, still people complaining they are waiting long line to charge him because the charging takes like half an hour, 20 minutes, one hour. It's not effective. So that's the reason BYD latest introduced flash charging is one megawatt charging. Then it's five minutes. Two minutes. You get 400km. So charging speed is as fast as gas refueling gas. And then this will be big game changer. So BYD started leading this direction. Then ourselves also invest this charging station and not only in China but globally. In every country we met with all the utility companies. So it means this flash charging technology is going to improve charging efficiency, like by maybe 10 or 40, like 30 times more. So then by this way, it's like in the future the people will no longer have concern. I live in the US. People like drive long distance, but then if you don't have charging, then each time every 500 or 400, 300 miles, you need to stop for one hour. It's impossible. But now with this flash charging, two minutes, five minutes, you got another 500. This will be the key game changer in next 5 to 10 years.
What about the interoperability between charging networks though BYD obviously investing heavily in that charging technology. Will you allow other carmakers to tap into that as well?
Yes. Yeah. This charging infrastructure will open to everybody. But the key stuff you have charging side, another side in the battery, in the car side, you need to have like a 1000 kilovolt this kind of capability. And also you need to have battery can accept this quick fast charging. So but we saw the industry each time like BYD as a technology leader we introduce something everybody will follow. So we think in three to in 3 to 5 years everybody will have this capability. That's the reason that's the we're thinking about EV is not only bringing the sustainable future, but it's bringing innovation because it's make technology become more like a popular then the technology really changing the whole like a whole world.
Charging is really important. Go ahead.
Diverted you from critical minerals. So coming back to that, I think that to get, to continue to get conviction and policy conviction around EVs in the US and Europe, diversification of critical mineral supply chains and rare supply chains are very important. So China has dominant roles in processing of most of these. So there's a couple different things. One is diversifying where processing is done. Even more importantly than extraction it's really about processing. The other is changes in battery chemistries that can move away from these some of these, minerals where supply chains are more challenging in different ways, including, for example, moving away from cobalt, which is dominantly from the Democratic Republic of Congo. So that means things like sodium ion batteries that don't rely on lithium. And these these battery chemistry changes, are really important to, I think, giving confidence. And also this is just an area of an enormous amount of global research, where we should expect to see lots of changes and improvements. You've done a dramatic improvement in that fast charging battery, but there are lots of other research going on. I think research is just critically important on batteries.
Governor, perhaps you can speak to this as well. From a policymakers perspective, walk me through some of the key challenges you faced when it comes to rolling out a charging network across the grid in Michigan. And can you also speak to this Critical Minerals challenge as well? What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear Critical Minerals?
I would say, you know, to what Gustavo was saying, you know, chaos is really bad for business. And as you talk about a mine is a 3040 year proposition. Same is true for manufacturing. We've seen, these long term investments are now being paused because we have a chaotic policy terrain in the United States and coming out of DC. To Stella's point, one of the things about the charging and the advancements that are happening when we think about range anxiety, which is the phrase that we use in the States, is, the there's no question that the advancements are happening, which is precisely why we've got to continue to move forward on EV production in the United States. And with the the auto industry in the US, we cannot slow down. Even if the policies have changed in Washington, DC. We've got to continue to move forward on this. And and you know, critical minerals. We know that, the processing question is, is truly, the the issue globally that we're all going to be confronting. But if the autos are going to continue to be competitive, that's an issue that American autos are are focusing on. And as a state, we are as well. Now, I can't unilaterally address that. But what I can do is set the table so that we've got an environment, at least at the state level, that we are supporting advancements on all of these fronts.
Stella, over to you again. And on this question of policy, I know recently you called the UK's new electric car subsidy scheme. I quote here, stupid. So why doesn't the UK want your cars?
Yeah, actually UK initially has the the best policy. They use tax credit then instead of other countries only talking about 20, 30, 100% electric. But in UK they build a schedule like 2026. You need to reach 28% and then by next year you need to be 40%. Then they give. Also, the tax benefit is like in 25 you get the most benefit, but the 26 then your benefit reduce 20%. This is super smart system and a very sustainable. But once you jump in, give another subsidy. Sometimes subsidy is more like a drug will make you strong. So then we will see the market. The consumer initially want to change the car because the tax benefit. But they say oh no, no, no let's wait. Let's see what's the money there. So then they stop. They suddenly don't buy any electric car. They wait. And this is more like a you make the industry cut shock and then everybody will saw this happening in other countries. Sometimes in Spain the customer just hold in two months they don't buy any electric car and they want the subsidy comes, they buy and then they stop. They waiting for the next subsidy. So this is not a sustainable.
So I wanted to open up the conversation to the audience as well. If you have a question for any of our panelists, I'll give you the opportunity to also stand up, raise your hand. Jump in. So start thinking about what you would like to ask, because please do get involved. I think, I'll ask one more question before I bring it into the audience. And I think one of the most important questions I think about is, where does the consumer land in all of this as well? We've touched on this just briefly, but what would you say is the biggest challenge that this industry or this supply chain needs to solve for the consumer today? I'll start with you, Stella.
The biggest challenge is the government. Government in every single country needs to be sustainable. Don't change the policy back and forth, because when you change policy back and forth, you will confuse the whole supply chain. But once you have clear idea electrification is the future, then everybody was investing all the R&D money to one direction. They don't need to split money, then nothing will happen. And then you don't need to worry about supply chain. For example, like electric car. Gustavo, you will be happy. One EV will consume 70 to 80 kilogram copper. And then building the flash charging, you're going to consume another 50 kilogram like copper. This will benefit the supply chain. And then also we have the crisis for lithium cobalt oxide during pandemic like only like Chile, Australia and China produce. Then suddenly the market demand, then the price spark by 30 times more. Then immediately you will suddenly find in Brazil you have a lot of lithium. Then even in Mexico you have a lot lithium. Even in us you find a lot lithium. Everybody invests on that one now. So now also like even with this kind of driven then Indonesia have nickel and lithium. Everybody start to announce they found this lithium. So we say if you have sustainable future then you have demand the economy. The business plan will drive all the supply chain to every single country will benefit to other country. I was in Middle East last week. Then they are famous, have a rich resource for gas, for oil. But then suddenly they discover they have big mining resource too. So you see the it's this kind of demand will generate a lot of like a surprise to everybody. What benefit for every single country here.
Gustavo no, I agree I think it is once demands firms up and that is very dependent on, the stability of the policies which which Stella is saying. Well, I think the uncertainty for business people is the worst because you make investment decisions, as we mentioned before, based on long term fundamentals. I think our challenge from the mining perspective is to make sure we can bring those minerals as quick and at the lowest cost and the most in the most responsible way as possible. So making sure they can be traceable, that they follow human rights, policies, that they those things are fundamental. So the end customer understand that he's buying a car, that it's green, but it's also being done in a proper way when you go all the way up to the upstream. So that is, for us a fundamental issue that the industry is addressing. I think ICM that represents all the miners are bringing together, for example, a consolidating mining standard to make sure that once you buy a particular commodity from the miners, you can be sure that they follow a series of procedures in terms of responsible miners. This goes back to my initial point of making sure we continue to show that, yes, it's possible to be done in a responsible way, and this will help to drive incremental demand in the long term.
That's good for shareholders and investors as well. Let's pause there. Just for a moment. I wanted to see if there's any questions in the room. We have some hands coming up. Excellent. So we'll have the team from the forum maybe pass through with the microphone. Ma'am, I think we can start with you.
Thank you, thank you. You talked a lot about minerals. I'm interested in shifting to the consumer. And I hear a lot about is it going to be EV or is it going to be hybrid, and what's the right direction for countries that don't have a consistent, you know, government policy and that have a lot of vertical living and consumers are worried about access to range anxiety, as you call it. So I'd love to hear about EV versus hybrid.
Who wants to speak to that?
I'm the car guy. I think in the country did not have sustainable, clear direction to EV. Then the DMI, the Phev will be the solution. So like us, we introduce a lot of like we call the pH level called DMI. Cars with even range you can go to like 50 to 100, even 300km per charge and then one charge, one tank of gas. You can run 1000km and the new car can even 1500km. The next generation will be 2000. So, governor, you no longer worry about like, range and then this longevity. So this kind of technology we saw step by step will replace Iskon. Also, if you see the European the sales data from 2025, the Phev growth is almost double. It's almost double because this kind of Phev will give you all the benefit of the electric car gave to you. But then it's the same time you save the money. So we saw this one in next 5 to 10 years will be intermediate solution for the country. Did not have the very strong direction for EV.
I think this is also very much about charging and the availability of charging. And in cities where people are more likely to live in multi-family housing, park on the street, rent their home, public charging is really important. That's either, pretty widespread fast charging or really ubiquitous public charging and creating the policies that makes it easier to install public charging around multi-family housing at Harvard's, a lot of climate Institute, we've done a couple of papers developed with cities that are quite far along the adoption curve, putting out advice for other cities that are just starting their journey for how to go about building that charging network.
Yeah, Nina is right. I want to add one more data here in China 5 to 10 years ago. Fcev is around 60 to 70% share for new energy. But then this year from last year 2025 flip over 60% is electric car because the charging infrastructure in the house in the public is well built up.
Thank you ma'am. Excellent question. Any other questions on let's maybe take another question on this side of the room. Then we'll come over to this side microphone to the front of the floor. Ma'am. Just stand up and introduce yourself.
Thank you. Interesting discussion. I come from one of these countries with a high adoption rate of EVs, which is Sweden. And I do drive an EV. I just have a question. I lack the the discussion of recycling or batteries, because if we're going to make this not make the same mistakes as we continue to do over and over again, and we're going to truly make this, industry sustainable, we need to both talk about autonomy, autonomous car driving, but also about recycling of batteries in terms of critical minerals. Yeah.
I would like to take that question.
I can talk about this one. I think this is a fundamental issue and question. And we should certainly accelerate not only, for, for nickel but also for copper. We are talking about recycling across all the critical minerals, even, for some of the high grade steel production, for example, which is also, could also be used in terms of accelerated in terms of recycling to my initial, remarks, in terms of us needing to develop a new mining position, making sure we are more circular, reuse, less footprint, less water, we have to make sure we accelerate. I think all the miners are looking into those. There's new technology coming in. I, you know, for example, today at 10% of my production is fully circular, meaning I'm reprocessing points that in the past, because of technology, I was I wasn't able to extract the minerals from those materials. So we move into waste piles, for example. We are going back to those waste piles and instead of mining again, we are looking at those and saying, can we reprocess? Because the technology technology today is a lot better. So let's reprocess then less environmental impact and so on. So it is a broader conversation that is fundamental for the industry.
Stella, did you want to speak to that too?
I think one is that you need to develop the technology, work on the cold temperature and then the charging technology, fast charging technology, need to work on the cold temperature. Yeah. So this is what we are doing now. Our battery and also flash charging can work. Very good performance at cold temperature. So that will be another game changer.
Okay okay. Perhaps a question over this side as well. So you've had your hand up for a while. Let's get a microphone over to the front hand side here.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'd like to ask a question about another potentially game changing factor. Autonomous driving. Yeah. What if autonomous driving can only be achieved with EV and it can be achieved in short term future. That may put an end to today's question. Yeah, because then cars can be sold to people who don't even drive. Yeah. So what's your opinion about that. So because I'm an AI guy. Yeah. So I'd like to hear the opinion about from yours. Yeah.
Okay. An interesting point. Would anyone like to speak to that?
Sure. I'll jump in and just say that I think all the developers of autonomous vehicles expect them to be EVs because the computational load is very high. So you'd be, destroying your fuel efficiency if you tried to put autonomous vehicle technology on an internal combustion engine or gas powered car. So Avs will be EVs, and those are, developments that go well together.
Any other points to make on that side of the equation?
So autonomous driving definitely will be the future we'll see in the next 5 to 10 years, all the auto companies are going to compete with autonomous driving. So this is once you have autonomous driving. This opens the door for a lot of like car sharing and the people. And the currently most important is improving the safety. So we have data in us. Every year 1 million people have been killed by car accident. But with autonomous driving you can reduce 40% of the car accident. So this is the immediate benefit the current consumer now. But like in China, the government is very sensitive on this one. They call the nobody can use autonomous driving. Then they have policy to step one. L2 is means the hand need be there. But we call the intelligent driving. Then L2 L3 regulation will be maybe ready in three years. So they build a very sustainable, strong step towards autonomous driving. That's what big huge game changer.
I think data in the US is showing.
That not only is there lower incidence of accidents with autonomous vehicles, but that the severity is a lot lower when those accidents occur. So that's really pretty powerful.
Yeah. Any other questions in the room? Does anyone have a question for the governor of the great state of Michigan, folks on stage with us? I think we have a question at the back here. Yes, sir.
Yeah. Thank you very much. My name is I'm the general secretary of Industrial Global Union, which means I represent 50 million industrial workers, including millions of mining workers. And of course, we know that mining is still riddled with exploitation, which makes it challenging to develop this industry. We, of course, know that this is coming, but the minerals are coming from countries where human rights are very poorly developed, and it's a big responsibility on the mining companies to, together with trade unions in the countries and us as international trade unions to develop the human rights concepts in this mining industry. My question is how you deal with that.
I don't think that questions for me.
No. You need to develop the mining industry in your state, your great visionary leader.
It's an excellent question. I think, Gustavo.
It's for you. I can go briefly on that. I.
Think it's a great point. And, we are taking this very seriously. One of the examples I mentioned is this consolidating mining standard that we are about to launch from ICM to make sure that miners can demonstrate and can be audited to show that they do all the processing, all the mining based on the best, human rights policies that they have environmental, controls in their operations. So this is a fundamental issue, certainly for miners like Valley. We don't want to have this type of competitors. Right. Because it's it's not at the same level playing field. So we want to enhance and bring people together. And at the end, the consumers that are buying those products, buying the cars from BYD, they care about it as well. So we want to make sure traceability is there, because at the end, if everybody is working and protecting good jobs, making sure people are well compensated, that they have decent labor conditions, this is fundamental for us to make sure we can rebuild the reputation of the mining industry as well, making sure then we can embrace and bring society along for us to do even more projects that are needed for us to supply all the critical minerals. So that is critical. We are taking this very seriously at the ICM. And we understand this is important and we want to push this agenda.
Well, it's been a fascinating conversation so far. I wish we had more time. But ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for joining us in the room today on behalf of the World Economic Forum and CNBC. Thanks for being here and enjoy the rest of the conference.