How the U.S. lost its lead in electric vehicles and other clean energy inventions

China calls them the “new three” — electric vehicles, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries — a set of technologies to replace the country’s previous export focus on furniture, clothing and household appliances.

And those technologies have something in common: They were all invented in the United States.

Since the early 2000s, a suite of government incentives and policies has swept China to the forefront of the market for EVs, solar panels and batteries. But most of the world’s clean technologies were invented in the U.S. In an alternate reality, the U.S. could have become the world’s leader.