Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner criticized Beijing’s scrutiny of Ford Motor Co.’s partnership with a Chinese electric-vehicle battery giant as ironic and hypocritical considering that nation’s own track record on technology sharing.
China will look over Ford’s recent agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. to ensure the Chinese battery giant’s core technology isn’t handed over to the US carmaker, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. The move is another sign of heightened geopolitical tensions between the world’s two largest economies complicating business deals.
While Beijing is pleased the deal showcases China’s prowess in the EV battery space, Chinese officials are concerned that competitive aspects of CATL’s technology could be given to or accessed by the American automaker, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing Chinese government deliberations.
Warner, a Virginia Democrat, called the China deal review “ironic” given that, for the past two decades, western companies were required to transfer technology to their Chinese counterparts or had it stolen through commercial espionage. He called Beijing’s review of the deal a “hypocrisy of the Communist Party regime.”
“They have forced technology transfer, stolen technology, and now want to try and reverse the flow,” Warner said.
New Plant
Ford said the partnership would see CATL’s lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery technology licensed for use in a new $3.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant that Ford will run and control in southwest Michigan.
Ford had considered a location in southern Virginia, where local officials have bet heavily on playing a role in rebuilding the US industrial base. But Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin backed away from the deal calling it a “Trojan horse” for the Chinese Communist Party.
Warner said he didn’t do “due diligence” on the Ford-CATL deal and declined to comment, but said he will work with the governor to find another company for the Southern Virginia “mega site.”
Senator Marco Rubio, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to Biden administration officials Feb. 13 calling for a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States review the licensing agreement, and said “under no circumstances should the Biden administration be considering providing federal support to Chinese manufacturers.”
President Joe Biden put China’s domination of EV batteries in his sights with his signature climate bill — the Inflation Reduction Act — which means electric cars made with a certain amount of China-linked materials miss out on lucrative consumer tax credits.
The IRA has met with significant pushback from the world’s top battery makers, of which CATL is No. 1. China controls vast swathes of the supply chain for battery materials and CATL is a leader in LFP battery technology and production.
