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this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Setting aside fascism, the solution is expanded train infrastructure.
People in here are talking about battery IP but that's not as important as simple BEV production capacity. An EV is dead simple mechanically but you've gotta have the raw resources and factories to keep up. Even then, the US would need to do some major infrastructure upgrades to support a bunch of heavy and plug-hungry EVs.
Trains are a big investment but getting track laid and a few hundred thousand running is much more manageable than trying to replace ~280 million ICE vehicles (97.9% of all US vehicles in 2023).
I predict China is going to feel the same car dependence pain in a few decades if they continue to ramp production and climb the cars-per-capita leader board. It's crazy expensive to keep millions of people puttering around in multi-ton metal boxes.
Ahh I don't think they're going the way of the US in that regards:
Wikipedia data is a little old, but...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_China
"China's railways are the busiest in the world. In 2019, railways in China delivered 3.660 billion passenger trips, generating 1,470.66 billion passenger-kilometres and carried 4.389 billion tonnes of freight, generating 3,018 billion cargo tonne-kilometres.[1] Freight traffic turnover has increased more than fivefold over the period 1980–2013 and passenger traffic turnover has increased more than sevenfold over the same period.[10] During the five years 2016–2020, China's railway network handled 14.9 billion passenger trips, 9 billion of which were completed by bullet trains, the remaining 5.9 billion by conventional rail. "
This is the Chinese govt site
https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/statistics/202506/06/content_WS6842d8f6c6d0868f4e8f31d9.html
"China's railway system transported more than 4.31 billion passengers in 2024, up 11.9 percent year on year, according to the National Railway Administration.
Railway cargo transportation volume approached 5.18 billion tonnes last year, reflecting a 2.8-percent growth compared to the previous year.
In terms of investment, China's railway sector saw fixed-asset investment amount to 850.6 billion yuan (around 118.39 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024. During the same period, 3,113 km of new railway lines were inaugurated, about 79 percent of which are high-speed railways.
As the modern railway network continued to expand, China's total operational length of lines reached 162,000 km in 2024, including over 48,000 km of high-speed railway lines.
Furthermore, railway transportation remained safe, stable, and orderly throughout 2024, with no severe railway traffic accidents in China, the administration added."
TL;DR They're doing plenty of rail