Months ago, Ford announced that it had chosen Marshall, Michigan as the site for its newest EV battery plant, BlueOval Battery Park Michigan. There, it will produce lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries using technology licensed from Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL), which is based out of China. That latter point has stirred up quite a bit of controversy over the past few months, both from the U.S. and Chinese governments. In fact, CEO Jim Farley recently visited the White House to discuss these concerns after a group of lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to FoMoCo requesting more information on its deal with CATL. Earlier this week, the House expanded its probe in this same matter, and now, we have more details pertaining to what those lawmakers are looking at, courtesy of The Ripon Advance.
In a letter written by U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers – chair of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee – and 25 of her colleagues, the House voiced concerns over Ford’s partnership with CATL, particularly as how it relates to China’s influence over the global EV supply chain and national security, noting that it’s common for Chinese companies to send their own workers to facilities like Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan rather than creating jobs for locals.
“We seek to learn more about whether this partnership, and others like it, will potentially exacerbate our reliance on China,” the letter reads. “Should China gain control of domestic electric vehicle production, the United States would be exposed to serious national security risks at a time of escalating geopolitical tensions. Reports also indicate that the desire to exploit federal incentives to promote domestic manufacturing and electric vehicle supply chains, particularly tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, factored heavily into this arrangement between Ford and CATL, raising questions about the nature and structure of this partnership.”
Since the day this deal was announced, Ford has maintained that CATL won’t have any stake in the new plant, and also that it won’t receive any sort of U.S. tax dollars as part of this deal. Rather, the automaker insists that it will merely utilize technology licensed from CATL to build LFP batteries at its new plant, which will be used to power future all-electric vehicles.
We’ll have more on BlueOval Battery Park Michigan soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for comprehensive Ford news coverage.
Comments
Time to fact check just about everything you said.
You would think this is the first and only chinese made product in the US, the way our congress is acting. They love to stir the pot almost everything we buy is made in china what is congress doing about that yeap you guessed it nothing. We need to get rid of both parties and start over they are both so far right and left that it is screwing this country to no end. All the career politicians need to go now. We need to go back to where they get no pay check or benefits of any kind. We need people in congress that work for the good of the county not for their pockets. All this congress is interested in is creating drama one day it Hunter Biden issues and then its Trump issues the next day. Quit wasting our money on this stupid stuff and start fixing this country problems and biden or trump is not the problem its this Congress.
And when the time comes for CATL to pull that license or renegotiate the agreement with Ford, where does that leave the US consumer? I don’t know about anyone else, but why can’t Ford develop their own LFP battery technology instead of relying of foreign entities? This sounds like a mistake in the making.
According to the (chrysler) engineers no way will they need or have 2500 personal and if it did with all the tax breaks how does the infrastructure meet new demands