Conservative Politicians of the U.S. Express Concerns
As Ford and CATL recently announced a plan to build a battery manufacturing plant in Marshall in the U.S. state of Michigan by investing US$3.5 billion, the U.S. Republican Party, which is conservative on diplomatic issues, is expressing concern about the project.
According to foreign media reports on Feb. 17 (local time), Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to the Joe Biden administration demanding a review of Ford’s contract with CATL. The letter is addressed to key U.S. government officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The senator said that it is unacceptable for CATL to inject funds into the Chinese military. A Hispanic politician, Rubio is a high-profile politician who previously competed with President Trump in a Republican primary for the U.S. presidential election.
In addition to Rubio, Republican House Minority Leader Steve Scalise posted a tweet criticizing the Ford-CATL deal. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin also said in January that his state withdrew from a race to host a Ford plant due to concerns over potential Chinese involvement.
The Ford-CATL contract is under further scrutiny by the Chinese government due to its significance and impact on US-China relations, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 16, citing an anonymous local source. According to the report, the Chinese government is positive in that the contract proves China’s capabilities, but is concerned that American companies can access CATL’s technology or CATL may directly provide the technology to American companies. Thus, China is holding internal discussions to prevent the leakage of China’s core technology.
Industry insiders say that the United States may come up with additional regulations on Chinese battery companies in March, when detailed provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are expected to come out.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Ford took customer service action for its electric pickup truck F-150 Lightning equipped with SK On’s batteries due to other problems even before production was halted due to a recent battery fire.
According to CNBC on Feb. 17 (local time), Ford announced a customer service action on Jan. 27 for a small number of F-150 Lightning owners to replace parts of the high-voltage battery to prevent the electric trucks from suffering a drop in performances. Ford explained that this action for about 100 F-150 Lightning vehicles was carried out because of battery module problems. The model in question turned on the spanner warning light on its dashboard and then changed to a limited performance mode, slowing down or even stopping in severe cases, CNBC said.
“This action is not a safety recall, but rather a proactive investigation to help owners of the model avoid experiencing battery deterioration,” Ford spokesman Marty Gunsberg said. As a result, Ford replaced high-voltage battery modules of the affected vehicles with new ones free of charge, Gunsberg said.
However, this issue appears to be unrelated to a Feb. 4 battery fire that triggered a recent production shutdown. On Feb. 4, Ford stopped production and shipment of this model and is conducting its own investigation after a fire broke out from the battery of an F-150 Lightning truck, which was being stored at the warehouse outside Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan plant. “This is a one-time issue, and no additional similar cases have been found,” an SK On official said. ““We have already finished our investigation into the cause of this fire and devised measures to prevent the recurrence of similar cases.”