China has almost no oil capacity on their own. They can get oil from Russia through massively long pipelines, but a large amount of their oil imports are through ocean trade routes through narrow straights and contested waterways. The US just doesn't have the same level of concern.
Also, they kind of lightly touch on it, but the IP boondoggle surrounding high capacity NiMH batteries in the 00's, the US Auto Battery Consortium constantly trying to kill electric cars, the IP issues for LFP batteries (that seem like China just ignored), there's a lot of legal barries that slowed things down domestically.
As for battery technology, the US has still been decently competitive. LFP batteries were invented by Dr. Goodenough and Dr. Manthiram at the University of Texas after all. Material Science research is still a big thing in the US.