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Title: Ford Plows Ahead On EV Battery Factory Amid Political Storm

Link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/06/23/...

Ford is moving forward with its $3 billion EV battery plant in Michigan
despite political pushback and the potential loss of key U.S. tax credits
that make the project financially viable. Axios reports: Ford's argument is
that by building batteries using technology licensed from China's leading
battery producer, CATL, it is helping to re-shore important manufacturing
expertise that was long ago ceded to China. [...] "LFP batteries are produced
all around Europe, and the rest of the world," said Lisa Drake, Ford's vice
president of technology platform programs and EV systems. "How can we compete
if we don't have this technology? Somebody has to take the lead to do this,"
she said, adding that it will lead to homegrown innovation and the seeding of
a domestic supply base. "I'm convinced this is the right thing to do for the
United States," she said. Drake said the tax subsidies are even more
important in the face of slower-than-expected EV demand. "When EV adoption
slowed, it just became a huge headwind," she said. "The [production tax
credit] allows us to keep on this path, and to keep going." "We don't want to
back off on scaling, hiring or training in an industry we need to be
competitive in the future," she said. "It would be a shame to build these
facilities and then have to scale back on the most important part of it,
which is the people. These are 1,700 jobs. They don't come along very often."
Consumer tax credits for EV purchases get the most attention, but for
manufacturers, the far more lucrative incentives come in the form of
production tax credits. Companies could receive a tax credit of $35 per
kilowatt-hour for each U.S.-made cell, and another $10 per kilowatt-hour for
each battery pack. With an annual production capacity of 20 GWh, Ford's
battery plant could potentially receive a $900 million tax credit, offsetting
almost one-third of its investment. [...] The Republican-controlled Senate
could vote as early as Wednesday on a budget bill that would rewrite language
around EV tax credits. A House version of the bill passed last month
effectively killed the production tax credits for manufacturers by severely
tightening the eligibility requirements. It also specifically prohibited
credits for batteries made in the U.S. under a Chinese licensing agreement --
a direct hit on Ford.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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