Ford's reportedly working on a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan:
Ford's gearing up to announce a $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, according to a report from Automotive News. In an advisory obtained by the outlet, the automaker says it will reveal the news of the factory on Monday in partnership with China's Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a company that creates lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), including the Mustang Mach-E.
While Ford still hasn't confirmed these plans, Michigan reportedly offered $1 billion in incentives to attract the automaker. The factory's expected to bring 2,500 jobs to the area.
The project is part of Ford's efforts to comply with the strict rules set by the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which lets EVs assembled in North America qualify for a $7,500 tax credit. Although the IRA also outlines battery sourcing requirements that discourage dealings with "foreign entities of concern," like China, we still don't know how the Treasury Department will interpret these rules until sometime next month.
[...] Even still, Ford's reportedly pushing ahead with the project. It could implement a "novel ownership structure" that would allow the automaker to work with the Chinese company and still qualify for the federal tax credit, according to a report from Bloomberg. This could involve Ford taking 100 percent ownership of the plant itself, while CATL controls operations at the facility and keeps the technology it uses to build the batteries.
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And how Chinese companies came to dominate battery manufacturing:
Among the many factors at play, China's control of refined materials for battery cells and its advanced battery-making technologies are particularly important. So important that Western automakers who want to transition out of gas cars won't be able to do it without turning to Chinese-made batteries. That's why Ford has been planning for a long time to build a battery plant with Chinese battery giant CATL, the world's largest manufacturer of lithium batteries.
[...] But why does Ford feel it's necessary to work with CATL to make EV batteries in the first place? The simple answer is that Chinese companies have managed to make good-quality batteries in large quantities and at a low cost. It will be commercially unviable to avoid using Chinese batteries, and it will take a long time for domestic battery companies to rival the size and efficiency of CATL.
As my colleague Casey Crownhart explained last week, Ford's new plant will focus on making LFP batteries, which use iron rather than the cobalt and nickel used in the other main type of lithium battery, known as NMC. Compared with NMC batteries, which are widely used to make EVs in the US and Europe, LFP batteries cost less, have a longer life cycle, and are safer when it comes to the possibility of catching fire.
But just a few years ago, LFP batteries were considered an obsolete technology that would never rival NMC batteries in energy density. It was Chinese companies, particularly CATL, that changed this consensus through advanced research. "That's purely down to the innovation within Chinese cell makers," Max Reid, senior research analyst in EV and battery supply chain services at the global research firm Wood Mackenzie, tells me. "And that has brought Chinese EV battery [companies] to the front line, the tier-one companies."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 14, @01:58PM (2 children)
So - Ford owns the facility. Facility is in America. American workers work in the facility. But CATL retains the technology. And, that's pretty much the same myth that fueled the off shoring of so much of American technolgy.
A lot of people still have their heads firmly inserted into their anuses. Maybe Ford will observe whatever moronic conventions are at play here, but don't be surprised if one or more CATL employees is involved in a startup in the not distant future. Or, does CATL enjoy some kind of patent protection that compares with our stupidly long copyright protections? Has the administration signed some kind of agreement to honor CATL's patents for 100 years or more?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14, @07:59PM
I'm looking at the $1B incentives. Maybe that will pay off like the Scott Walker $2.85B package thrown at Foxconn.
(Score: 2) by corey on Tuesday February 14, @09:31PM
On the surface it sounds like the US/China roles have reversed: manufacturing in the US, technology development and ownership by the Chinese.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 14, @06:25PM
China's Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL)
Gotta provide the cattle with their batteries.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14, @10:38PM
In other automotive investment news, Global Foundaries is going to build processors for General Motors in their chip plant near Albany NY. https://www.autonomousvehicleinternational.com/news/connectivity/globalfoundries-to-supply-general-motors-with-semiconductor-chips-manufactured-in-the-usa.html [autonomousvehicleinternational.com]
Of course New York State is picking up a big chunk of the tab for the expanded capacity. Maybe NYS has looked harder at this giveway than they did for Elon and the Buffalo "solar roof" factory...which hasn't made many solar cells (the NY purchased fab machinery has been sold off), but does keep some people employed making other parts for Tesla.