(New York) The American automaker Ford announced on Monday that it would invest 3.5 billion dollars in the construction of an electric battery factory in Michigan with the help of a Chinese partner.
The group, which seeks to strengthen its capacity to manufacture electric vehicles, had already mentioned this project in July 2022 but had not then specified whether it would be its own factory, that of a partner or of a joint venture, or its location.
He eventually chose to form a new subsidiary entirely under his control while using the knowledge and services provided by the Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in January that he did not want his state to host the plant because of its connections to the Chinese company.
To qualify for new aid from the US government, builders must now make sure to build the items in the United States.
Several of them, including Ford, have chosen for other projects to join forces in joint ventures with partners, notably South Korean or Japanese.
The plant presented Monday, which will be called BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, will be located in the city of Marshall, and should be operational in 2026 and create 2,500 jobs.
It will manufacture batteries based on lithium, iron and phosphate (LFP), different from the batteries currently used by the group based on nickel, cobalt and manganese (NCM).
“LFP batteries are exceptionally durable and use fewer high-demand, high-cost materials,” Ford said in a statement.
The group announced in March 2022 that it wanted to devote a total of $50 billion between 2022 and 2026 to the electrification of its range of vehicles.
It aims to produce at a rate of 600,000 electric vehicles per year by the end of the year, and 2 million by the end of 2026.
The group currently offers electric versions of the F-150 Lightning pick-up, the E-Transit van and the Mustang Mach-E SUV. In 2022, Ford was the second group having sold the most electric vehicles in the United States, Tesla remaining by far the first.