This is an example of where the West's patent system is its undoing. Lithium batteries were invented in the West and manufactured first in the West. In particular LFP which is what BYD is based on (they say their batteries should get around 25 years) hasn't been made in significant volumes in the West. That's because they were patented, and the patent was vigorously enforced.

Meanwhile China ignored the patents. They could not sell to the West but grew their volumes due to internal sales. So now they have large economies of scale and the West is 20 years behind. Or to borrow the term used in the article, "on the back foot".

The patent system has been a mess for most of my working life. 20 years might have been appropriate for the rate of technological development 100 years ago and perhaps it's appropriate for pharma now, but it's far too long for most types of engineering.

The funny thing is, AI might be the cure as apparently we aren't going to let AI inventions be patented.