CNBC explains 'How China Proved It Can Shut Down Global Auto Production,' a driving update

I promised a driving update for the new car and I'm getting to it over the jump after sharing CNBC explaining How China Proved It Can Shut Down Global Auto Production.

China dominates the world‘s production and processing of rare earth elements, which are used in all kinds of things: sports equipment, national defense, and each of the roughly 16 million cars sold in the US every year. Over the last few years, the Asian country has been tightening access and suddenly restricted exports in early April 2025. The move sent shockwaves through the auto industry which can’t build cars without these minerals. CNBC Dove in to see how we got here, and how the auto industry might find its way out.

China's dominance of rare earth element production and processing is something I mention to my students every semester in both geology and environmental science. I first mentioned it here in 2012, and wrote an entire entry about it in 2019, when I warned China threatens to restrict exports of rare earths.

I point out that the U.S. is 100% dependent on imports of 21 minerals, chief among them rare earths, and that many of the countries that we import them from are not our friends, especially China and Russia. Not only do I tell my students this, but I say that China in particular could cut off exports of rare earths, which would cripple our ability to make many products.

Thanks to Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump's tariffs, it looks like the day I've been warning my students about for more than a decade has arrived. Sometimes, I wish I weren't right.

That's the general driving situation. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.


My wife and I bought Ahsoka the Grey, the name we came up with for our new vehicle, on Monday, January 27, 2025, when it had 14 miles on the odometer. She passed 1,000 miles on Tuesday, September 2, 2025; in fact, she reached 1,015 miles, so I can conveniently ignore its initial odometer reading to calculate its mileage. That's 211 days for 1,000 miles, which translates to 4.74 miles per day, 144.55 miles per standard month, and 1,729.86 miles per standard year. That's more than the 3.96 miles per day, 120.70 miles per standard month, and 1,444.42 miles per standard year my wife and I drove Snow Bear between Friday, August 16, 2024 and January 27, 2025, but exactly the same as the 4.74 miles per day, 144.55 miles per standard month, and 1,729.86 miles per standard year, and 1,734.60 miles per leap year my wife and I drove Snow Bear between Thursday, January 18, 2024 and Friday, August 16, 2024, the comparable period last year. The vehicle may have changed, but our driving habits have not.

I'd normally look at the driving of both vehicles here, but I messed up in Ray 'CityNerd' Delahanty explains how 'Dunning-Kruger Is a Scourge On Our Roads,' a driving update. I sincerely thought the Black Pearl had passed 70,000 miles last month, but I looked at her odometer last week and saw it was ~69,750 miles. Oops. I don't know how I screwed up, but I guess I mistook rolling over 69,700 for 70,000. If so, I'm glad I'm getting my eyes checked next month. I expect I will post a corrected driving update later this month. In the meantime, I changed the topic of tomorrow's post to another tale of the Retail Apocalypse. Stay tuned.