This is similar to Ford’s plan.
As the US federal government incentivizes automakers to produce EV batteries in this country, the big players in that niche are looking to invest in more production facilities here. That was obviously the aim of the Inflation Reduction Act, not actually reducing the rate of inflation, and it’s coming with a weird twist as American automakers want to team up with Chinese companies on these domestic ventures.
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The latest example is Tesla wanting to establish a new battery plant in the US along with CATL, the top battery production firm in China. If you think you’re experiencing déjà vu that’s because Ford has been trying to do the same thing, first in Virginia until Governor Youngkin rebuffed the plan, and now in Michigan where there’s resistance, though Governor Whitmer is a big supporter of the plan.
While some act absolutely perplexed that anyone would be less than enthused about having a huge Chinese company involved in such an operation within our borders, others feel any American automaker teaming up with CATL is the exact opposite of the economic decoupling from China and its ruling communist party we should have already performed.
A report from The Detroit News claims unnamed sources have disclosed this plan to have Tesla and CATL go in together on a US-based EV battery plant is being discussed with the White House. That’s raising even more eyebrows considering accusations of the current president’s family’s financial ties to the CCP. Supposedly, the Biden Administration is simply providing guidance on how the Inflation Reduction Act will be enforced for such projects.
While CATL will be involved in the Ford and Tesla plants, as the deals sit right now, the American automakers would solely own the actual facilities. What CATL provides is proprietary lithium-ion battery technology.
Another criticism of the involvement of CATL in US battery production is that the Chinese company, which is subject to CCP governance, is profiting off US taxpayer-funded subsidies, something Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida have argued isn’t ethical. People in the area where the Ford battery plant would go are also providing resistance to the plan, in part because of the involvement of a Chinese company.
This will be quite the test of which side will win in the near-term: those who want to further America’s economic ties with China and in turn the CCP government and those who feel we can’t decouple from the communist country fast enough.
Source: The Detroit News
Images via Tesla
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