Japan to work with EU on chips and electric vehicle materials to reduce reliance on China

Japan and the European Union plan to formally cooperate in the research and development of key materials in areas such as chips and electric vehicle batteries, partly to reduce dependence on China, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

Iliana Ivanova, the EU Commissioner for Innovation and Research, said in an interview that establishing an "Advanced Materials Dialogue" dialogue framework in areas of common interest would benefit both sides. The framework will be launched in April in response to a proposal from the EU. According to Nikkei, the framework aims to help reduce dependence on China for materials such as rare metals, which are key ingredients in products such as electric vehicle batteries.

Ivanova noted that cooperation could involve materials in areas such as renewable energy, transportation, construction and electronics. One specific area envisioned by the two sides is the development of sodium-ion batteries, which are seen as a promising source of power for the next generation of electric vehicles. Such batteries do not use rare metals controlled by China and are cheaper to produce than traditional batteries. Since China is a leader in the development of sodium-ion batteries, the EU hopes to make progress in this area as the shift to electric vehicles advances.

It is noted that in October last year, the European Commission announced an anti-subsidy investigation on electric vehicles imported from China. BYD, SAIC Motor and Geely Auto were selected as the first batch of investigation targets. According to Chinese customs data, in the first two months of this year, China's electric vehicle shipments to the 27 EU member states were slightly more than 75,600, a year-on-year decrease of 19.6%.