Industrialization used to be about brute force: burn fuel, drive conveyor belts, scale output.
Industrial Electrification is different it requires:
🔹 Chemistry for storage
🔹 Rare-earth magnets for motion
🔹 Power semiconductors for control
🔹 Embedded intelligence to stitch it all together in milliseconds.
China’s Made in China 2025 (MIC25) wasn’t about making any one of those cheaper. It was about forcing them to co-evolve inside one ecosystem: shared standards, industrial parks, and vertically linked supply chains. That integration turned the “Electric Stack” from a shopping list into a moat.
🏭 The Four Layers of the Electric Stack
🔋 Battery Chemistry & Cells
- Today, China refines 65 % of the world’s lithium, 75 % of cobalt, and 95 % of rare-earth oxides.
- This chemical grip pulled cell plants home: CATL and BYD now ship more capacity per quarter than all of Europe + North America combined.
🧲 Magnets & Motors
- Rare-earth magnets cut EV motor weight by two-thirds.
- After 1995, China boosted NdFeB output from 40 kt → 200 kt/year — more than the rest of the world combined.
- Every EV motor, drone gimbal, and wind turbine nacelle still leans on Chinese magnets.
⚙️ Power Electronics (SiC & GaN)
- China supplies 98 % of global gallium, filed 40 % of GaN patents (2019–23), and operates 150 mm GaN-on-Si lines at 10× Western wafer starts.
- While the West debates scaling 200 mm SiC fabs, BYD is already pushing 800-V drivetrains into mass production.
🧠 Embedded Compute & Software
- Building on its consumer-electronics base, China now designs the MCUs, gate drivers, and AI accelerators that sit beside power devices.
The real legacy of MIC25 is a permanent bargaining chip in the global energy transition.
⚡ Grid upgrades 🚁 Drone fleets 🛡️ Defense electrification 🌞 Renewable integration
