Charging an electric car battery is usually cheaper than going to the gas pump. But it depends on where you live.

© The New York Times

Elon Musk’s electric car company said the new versions would start at around $37,000 and $40,000, prices that bring its cars closer to comparable gasoline vehicles.

© Maansi Srivastava for The New York Times

The vast Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou stood as a rebuke to U.S. efforts to hem in China’s technology. But the real competition is internal, and profits are hard to find.

China’s problem with competition is that it’s too brutal.

China’s problem with competition is that it’s too brutal.

The spotlight at the Munich auto show this year is swinging back to BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen after previously focusing on Chinese automakers.

The oil giant said Tuesday that it was acquiring assets from a Chicago company as it looks to start producing graphite, a key battery ingredient, by the end of the decade.

Beijing has run out of patience with companies slashing prices, and is urging restraint. But fierce competition is also producing a surge of innovation.

Electric models from the luxury car brand have been very successful, but they may struggle once a $7,500 federal tax credit ends next month.

Chinese automakers have rolled out chargers that can mostly recharge a car’s battery in about five minutes. Yet U.S. technology lags far behind.

A surge in high quality research and patent applications has cemented China’s dominance in the industry.

Ships carrying Chinese cars are using the Red Sea and Suez Canal even as other vessels still sail around Africa in fear of attacks by the Houthi militia.

Smothering electric vehicles might have been a regrettable mistake for a Republican to make 10 years ago. Today, it is economic idiocy.