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As the U.S. moves to decarbonize transportation, a new geopolitical risk has emerged buried deep inside the battery: graphite. China currently processes the overwhelming majority of anode-grade graphite and the U.S. government’s recent 93.5% anti-dumping tariff on Chinese graphite signals a dramatic shift in how EV supply chains will operate. We sat down with Jonathan Tan, CEO of Coreshell Technologies, to talk about how automakers are rethinking their sourcing strategies and how Coreshell fits into a wave of innovation aimed at reshaping the materials powering the EV transition.
There’s been a lot of attention on lithium and cathode materials, but graphite is suddenly getting more headlines. What’s driving that shift?
Graphite is the quiet crisis in the EV supply chain. Everyone’s been focused on lithium, cobalt, and nickel, and for good reason, but graphite makes up nearly half of the battery by mass and almost all of it is processed in China. Until recently, graphite was cheap and accessible, so it stayed out of the spotlight. But now that China has imposed export controls and the U.S. has responded with a 93.5% anti-dumping tariff, we’re watching a commodity turn into a chokepoint.
What we’re seeing is a recognition among automakers that this is a geopolitical vulnerability. Companies are being forced to ask, “What happens if a key battery material becomes politicized or cut off?” That’s a different mindset than just managing costs and timelines. And it’s pushing the industry to rethink not just where we get materials from, but what materials we build with in the first place.
What impact could these new tariffs have on the EV industry in the near term?
I think it will spark a scramble. Until now, many automotive OEMs have relied on Chinese graphite because it was relatively cheap and available. The new tariffs eliminate that pricing advantage and they come at a time when China has already started restricting exports. So we could see a mix of supply shortages, cost inflation, and contract renegotiations.
In the short term, this could slow battery production or squeeze margins. In the long term, it will accelerate efforts to regionalize supply chains, especially around the anode, which has been largely overlooked compared to lithium and cathode materials. Some solutions will come from building out non-Chinese supply, but the more transformative opportunity lies in moving beyond graphite altogether. That’s where material innovation, like silicon-based anodes, can offer a faster, more resilient path forward.
What role does Coreshell play in this changing landscape?
Coreshell’s focus is solving the graphite problem from the inside out. We’ve developed a battery architecture that uses metallurgical silicon instead of graphite in the anode. It’s abundant, produced domestically, and offers superior performance: up to 30% more range and faster charging times.
The challenge with silicon anodes has always been durability. Pure silicon swells during charging, which causes degradation. Our proprietary nanotechnology mitigates that effect, and we’re now producing EV-sized battery cells that meet industry benchmarks. . This wouldn’t just be a workaround to China’s dominance, it would be a leap forward in battery performance.
Some argue that we’ve seen this supply chain vulnerability for years. Why is it suddenly urgent?
Because until now, we’ve been playing chicken with reality. Everyone knew China had a monopoly on anode graphite, but the material was readily available and the disruption hadn’t happened yet. What changed is that China is now actively using that leverage by restricting exports, manipulating pricing, and making clear that supply won’t be guaranteed.
At the same time, U.S. policy has caught up. Both Trump and Biden administrations have required battery and vehicle tax credits to be tied to domestic or allied sourcing and the Treasury just had to delay compliance for graphite because the U.S. simply isn’t ready. That reprieve is going away.
From your vantage point, how are major automakers adapting to this new reality?
With growing urgency. A lot of the big OEMs are reassessing everything from contract structures to material R&D investments. Some are looking into U.S.-based graphite supply as a stopgap, but others are looking further downfield at alternative chemistries.
That’s where companies like Coreshell come in. We’ve been focused on reengineering battery chemistry from the ground up for years; not just acting as a new supplier, but fundamentally changing how anodes are made to unlock better performance and supply chain resilience. Our silicon-based anode eliminates graphite-reliance and opens the door to domestic material sourcing and higher performance. But we’re just one example of a broader trend: automakers want more optionality. They’ve been burned by single points of failure before and don’t want to be again.
Silicon has been positioned as a strong contender in the anode space. What developments have made that a more tangible reality lately?
Silicon has long held promise because of its energy density advantages over graphite, but a distinction that often gets overlooked is that not all silicon is created equal. Some types of silicon, like silicon nanoparticles or silicon monoxide, come with serious tradeoffs in quality control, cost, or manufacturability. They’re expensive to produce, hard to scale, or require added manufacturing steps that complicate battery production.
What’s changed recently is that metallurgical-grade silicon – the most abundant, affordable, and scalable form of silicon – is finally crossing the threshold from lab proof-of-concept to commercial readiness. Metallurgical silicon offers the EV automotive OEMs the best pathway to becoming a resilient and profitable industry. We believe that, instead of reinventing and producing expensive top-heavy technologies, companies that return to basics and build from the ground-up with low-cost materials will be the leaders of a crucial and transformative new era of battery innovation.
At the same time, policy and market forces are aligning. With new tariffs on graphite and growing pressure to regionalize supply chains, automakers are looking not just for performance gains, but for materials they can source and manufacture locally. They’re asking the right questions now: not just can a silicon solution work, but which kind can work, how soon, and at what cost. That’s a major shift.
What does a resilient EV battery supply chain look like five years from now?
Optionality and localization. Today, nearly every anode is made with graphite refined in China and that’s a fragile foundation for a global EV transition. Five years from now, we need a diversified landscape with multiple material pathways, not just multiple suppliers of the same constrained input. We also need more localized supply chains that insulate us from so much geopolitical risk.
Technologies like ours, that replace graphite at the chemistry level, will be key to achieving both performance and supply chain resilience. It’s about building an EV and battery ecosystem that consumers can rely on and reducing dependency on single points of failure.
If we want EV adoption to accelerate, we need cars that are more affordable, charge faster, and go farther. That starts with better batteries made from materials we can source and produce here at home.
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