Europe spends a lot of time talking about battery gigafactories. We discuss cell chemistries, subsidy schemes, factory locations, and how many gigawatts of capacity will be built by when. All of that matters. But a part of the battery value chain rarely makes it into these conversations, even though it has a disproportionate impact on cost, risk, and credibility. Battery chemicals. Not cells or packs, but the solvents, electrolytes, and precursors that sit upstream of every cathode line and...

EU eased CO₂ regulations for automakers at the end of last year. Almost immediately, parts of the LinkedIn community declared the EV transition dead: OEMs will return to ICE, Europe will lose the race, and incumbents will be finished. I argued the opposite. The legislation did not reopen a real path back to combustion. It was a gambit - giving away something to score a bigger victory. In practice, it pushed European carmakers toward EVs. That is exactly what is now being confirmed by a recent...

I used to think that US sanctions were reserved for criminals, dictators and Russians. Well, a few months ago, an ICC judge authorised an investigation into alleged war crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan. Then she was sanctioned. Her bank access was frozen. Amazon and Microsoft shut down her accounts. She was treated like an international criminal. If that wasn’t a wake-up call for all working with the USA, this January should have been. With Trump openly threatening tariffs and economic...