Green juice… The White House announced that Tesla would open up at least 7.5K of its US charging stations to non-Tesla EVs by the end of next year. Right now, Tesla’s US charging network — the country’s second largest — is compatible only with Teslas. Tesla might lose its exclusivity edge, but it would qualify for a share of billions in federal funding for building a national network. The Biden admin wants 500K+ EV chargers on US roads by 2030, and it also secured commitments from GM, Ford, ChargePoint, and others with charging networks.
Ballooning tensions… After the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon, relations between the world’s two largest economies have worsened. Last week China sanctioned US defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon over weapons sales to Taiwan. Earlier, the US barred Chinese companies that it said were tied to the balloon incident. China is one of the US’s largest trade partners, but relations are at the worst level in decades and could get worse. President Biden plans to talk with China’s President Xi to “get to the bottom” of things.