The Fin Is your Chinese EV a 'ticking time bomb'?
18 snips
Oct 15, 2025 Greg Bearup, a senior writer at the Financial Review, sheds light on China's dominance in Australia's EV market, emphasizing security vulnerabilities. Richard McGregor, a China expert at the Lowy Institute, dives into the geopolitical implications of Chinese-made tech. They discuss alarming risks like potential remote detonation of EVs and the surveillance concerns tied to data access. The duo also touches on the closure of local battery manufacturing and assesses strategies Australia can adopt to balance climate goals with national security.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
China Dominates Australia's EV And Battery Market
- Chinese-made EVs and home batteries dominate Australia's market and are essential to its emissions targets.
- That dominance makes Australia reliant on Chinese supply chains for its energy transition.
The Rise And Fall Of A Local Battery Maker
- Brian Craighead spent a decade building Renaissance Energy as Australia's only battery maker before it went into receivership.
- He claimed his CSIRO-developed batteries were cyber-secure and in demand by militaries for that reason.
Planned Battery Blast That Never Happened
- Greg Bearup considered staging an experiment to blow up a battery for a story but couldn't organise it.
- He later linked the remote-detonation idea to real-world incidents like exploding comms devices used in conflict zones.