Ford's $3.5 billion plant in Michigan will be based on technology from CATL, a Chinese company that is the world's No. 1 manufacturer of batteries for electric cars.
Ford Motor said on Monday, February 13 2023, that it planned to build a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery factory in Michigan using technology licensed from a Chinese company that has become one of the biggest players in the auto industry.
The plant, to be built in Marshall, a rural town about 100 miles west of Detroit, the automaker said it would own 100 percent of the plant and manufacture battery cells using technology and services from Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, known as CATL. The company, the world's largest producer of batteries for electric vehicles, has 13 factories of its own in Europe and Asia, but none in the United States.
The alliance comes at a time of considerable tension between Washington and Beijing.
After the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken abruptly canceled a trip to Beijing after the spy balloon was sighted over Montana.
The dispute over the balloons appears to have disrupted China's efforts to attract more
foreign investment after it ended nearly three years of "zero covid" policies and began reopening its borders. Many politicians in the United States continue to mistrust China and Chinese investment.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican, withdrew his state's bid for Ford's venture with CATL last month. He described the planned project to Bloomberg Television on January 20 as a "Trojan horse" for the Chinese Communist Party.
Ford is trying to insulate itself from US-China tensions
Ford is trying to insulate itself from US-China tensions by opting to own the factory outright and only license technology from CATL, which supplies batteries to Tesla, BMW and other big automakers.
Ford, General Motors and other automakers are building other battery plants that are jointly owned with South Korean partners. Ford is building two battery plants in Kentucky and a third in Tennessee, both with SK On. GM recently began production at a battery plant in Ohio that it jointly owns with LG Energy Solution, and the partners are building two more plants, in Tennessee and Michigan.
Ford's new plant will produce batteries that include lithium, iron and phosphate, a combination known as LFP. These batteries are less expensive because they do not include expensive ingredients like cobalt and nickel that are used in other batteries. LFP batteries also have the advantage of being longer lasting. But batteries containing cobalt and nickel contain more energy, allowing electric vehicles to go further before needing to be charged.
“The goal of this project is to reduce the cost of electric vehicles,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said. "LFP is the most affordable battery technology."
Source: NY Times
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