If you are a particular generation one of the more important aspects of growing up was the car or vehicle. The internal combustion engine was invented in Detroit and Henry Ford applied the assembly line aspect to the making of The Model T and soon Detroit was the center of automobile production. As the years went by and particularly the interstate highway building and suburban living, many communities had auto plants nearby or in their communities, these plants provided good paying jobs and many people benefited from the auto industry. There was a famous quote by a GM executive as GM goes so does the US or something similar and in reality that was correct. For those of us outside the auto industry, many of us thought it would continue.

In an article by Keith Bradsher of the New York Times News Service, the idea that no matter what changes the auto industry, it could adapt was born that innovation was done in the US – decades ago, a university lab in Texas, researchers discovered how to make batteries with minerals that were abundant and inexpensive. That knowledge was shown to the world, but the US did not take advantage. Companies in China are now building vast numbers of batteries that are inexpensive and reliable, producing most of the world’s electric cars and many other clean energy systems.

Batteries are one of a long list of how China is catching up or passing the US in its technological and manufacturing sophistication. The list includes pharmaceuticals to drones to high efficiency solar panels.

At the universities in China, a majority of undergraduates major in STEM or math, science, engineering or agriculture according to the Ministry of Education. In comparison, the US data shows only 1/5 of American undergraduates and half of doctoral studies are in these categories.

According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute 65.5% of widely cited technical papers on battery technology come from researchers in China, compared with 12% from the US.

Two of the world’s largest makers of electric-car batteries are CATL and BYD both headquarter in China. Not surprisingly, China has close to 50 graduate programs that focus on either battery chemistry or battery metallurgy. By contrast the US has only a handful of professors working on batteries. One of those universities is Swarthmore College which only has a limited number of spots to do battery research.

In Central South University in Changsha, it has 60,000 students on campus. The chemistry department is a 6-story building with many labs and classrooms. Peng Wenjie, a professor has set up a battery research company that employs 100 recent doctoral and masters program graduates and over 200 assistants.

Manufacturing makes up 28% of China’s economy compared with 11% to the US. One of the reasons is according to Robin Zeng, chair and founder of CATL, building and equipping an electric-car battery factory in the US costs 6 times more than in China and the work is 3-times longer.

In a recent story about electric car vehicles and Thailand, one of the electric car companies set up a plant in 78 days and had 40 showrooms to sell the cars. Could they do it the US?

All is not lost, the US does lead China in overall research spending in terms of dollars spent and in terms of the share of the country’s economy. R & D is 3.4% in the US compared to China’s 2.6%.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while 2/3s of the economy involves spending on consumer goods, those goods need to be designed, renewed every year. There are always break throughs, check the latest advertisements which highlight the R & D developments, however the US used to lead in all areas of the economy. Part of spending vast amounts of government dollars on post-secondary education was its links to R & D, is that changing?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.