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China’s top maker of electric-vehicle batteries plans to spend $1.4 billion (10 billion yuan) building its first factory in the southwest of the country, adding to ambitious plans for the next decade even as the short-term EV outlook gets buffeted by subsidy cuts and demand uncertainties.

Volkswagen AG’s Audi luxury-car brand is in talks to add China’s BYD Co. as a supplier of batteries used in its premium electric vehicles, according to people familiar with the matter.

A group of U.S. senators is introducing legislation to boost domestic production of “critical minerals” that are often imported from China to make electric car batteries.

Electric vehicles and solar tend to get lumped together as partners in the climate-friendly push to phase out fossil fuels. Now they’re competing head-to-head for high-tech components that have been in short supply.

The U.S. push to challenge China’s dominance in the production and sale of electric vehicles has at least one weak link: Most of the raw materials needed to make the batteries are dug elsewhere.

All major truck builders and several startups are preparing to develop, test and market either battery-electric vehicles or fuel-cell/battery models in the very near term. Replacing diesel-powered Class 8 trucks, though, will present numerous challenges to an industry accustomed to proven and reliable diesel-­engine technology.

Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn., electric vehicle assembly plant will use batteries produced at a $1.67 billion factory in Georgia.

The country holding the world’s largest reserves of lithium says it is one step closer to becoming a manufacturing hub for rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles.

LAS VEGAS — Nikola Motor Co. founder and CEO Trevor Milton said two key customers — private fleet Anheuser-Busch Cos. and truckload carrier U.S. Xpress Enterprises — will begin fleet tests of Nikola’s zero-emisssions hydrogen-electric Class 8 trucks by the end of the year, as the first shoots of the necessary fueling infrastructure are emerging in Phoenix.

To deliver an electric vehicle that’s cheaper, safer and capable of traveling 500 miles on a single charge, the auto industry needs a breakthrough in battery technology. Easier said than done.