The Commerce Department plans to impose a 93.5 percent levy on Chinese graphite, an essential ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles.
Beijing will now require government licenses for any effort to transfer abroad the technologies crucial for producing inexpensive electric cars.
China’s national champion carmaker BYD embodies a state-led industrial model that America may no longer be able to compete with.
The company has devoted resources to autonomous driving rather than developing new models to attract car buyers.
China’s lead in electric vehicle technology, which is already huge, could become insurmountable if incentive programs are slashed, auto experts and environmentalists say.
Ford Motor said it would open a new plant in Michigan that could become ineligible for federal incentives under a policy bill championed by President Trump and passed by the House.
BYD and other companies doubled their share of the car market after the European Union imposed higher tariffs on electric vehicles from China.
Battery companies are slowing construction or reconsidering big investments in the United States because of tariffs on China and the proposed rollback of tax credits.
Domestic factories that make batteries to store power to meet America’s rising energy demand depend on Chinese components and federal subsidies.
The measure, passed by the House, would roll back incentives for people to buy electric vehicles and for automakers to make them in the U.S.