Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) criticized Ford on Friday for collaborating with Chinese battery producer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) to produce batteries for its electric vehicles, saying he was “absolutely opposed” to US taxpayer dollars going to the firm under the Inflation Reduction Act’s electric vehicle subsidies.
Manchin, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has campaigned for increased local manufacture of the batteries used in electric vehicles and has stated unequivocally that he does not want taxpayer money going to a Chinese corporation.
“I’ll be damned if I give them $900 out of $7,500 to surrender it to China for essentially a product we created,” Manchin said. “Are you saying we don’t have the smart people or the technology to keep up? That just doesn’t make sense.”
According to Reuters, a Ford representative stated, “Building these batteries here in America is considerably more advantageous than continuing to rely only on overseas imports, as other automakers do.”
According to the report, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) presented legislation late this week that would prohibit tax incentives from being granted to corporations that collaborate with Chinese entities.
According to The New York Times, the ailing automaker lost billions of dollars last year while under the control of chief executive Jim Farley, in part due to inadequate investments and poor vehicle quality, which resulted in costly recalls.
Ford’s agreement with the Chinese corporation CATL comes after Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin dropped his state from a plan to attract the manufacturer specifically because of its ties to the Chinese company.
“I look forward to establishing a wonderful company there,” Youngkin, an extremely successful businessman, stated in an interview last month. “It won’t be one that leverages a Trojan-horse connection with the Chinese Communist Party to benefit.”
Ford intends to partner with CATL on the $3.5 billion battery facility, which is slated to open in 2026 and employ a few thousand workers. The corporation will strive to save money by producing batteries with less expensive components.
The disclosure sparked anger and promises of congressional investigations into the company’s ties to communist China.
“Woke businesses that lecture Americans concerning equality agenda always are, never fails, in bed with Chinese communists,” political strategist Arthur Schwartz tweeted. “@Ford will proceed with a $3.5 billion EV battery factory with a Chinese partner.”
According to a source close to House Republican leadership, “the closer Ford becomes to the Chinese communists, the closer we’ll examine their company.”
“We’re soon nearing the point where Ford’s commercial practices become a national security threat,” the person continued.
A Michigan Republican strategist indicated that Republican legislators in the state should be preparing to refuse Ford tax breaks in light of the adverse impact of doing business with communist China will have on the state.
“Ford is requesting about a billion dollars in tax breaks from the state of Michigan,” the strategist claimed. “That’s a billion dollars that would directly help the Chinese Communist Party. Republican leaders in Michigan should recognize that this is a national problem.”
