Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., stated that his business is putting “all hands on deck” to prepare for electric vehicles because the US is “not quite ready” to compete with China in the manufacture of EV’s.
According to Bill, China has developed very quickly, and they’ve developed them on a large scale, and now they are exporting. China is on track to overtake the United States as the second-largest exporter of passenger cars, which could fundamentally alter the global auto market and challenge the dominance of its rivals and trading partners in the auto sector.
Chinese-made automobile exports have tripled since 2020 and exceeded 2.5 million last year, posing a threat to established auto exporters like Germany.
Ford made a controversial political statement when it announced this year that it will invest US$3.5 billion (RM16.1 billion) in a Michigan-based electric vehicle battery plant. Ford said the plant would use technology and assistance from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd. to operate.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Sunday, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addressed the issue and said that increasing the capacity for refining important materials is “addressable” in order to reduce China’s advantage in EV batteries.
The US must make sure it is putting itself in a position to have an approach to these critically crucial components of their economy that is economically sensible, environmentally sensible, and geopolitically stable.
Bill Ford noted that there might be an opportunity for Ford engineers to understand the technology and it is really important that their engineers gain that knowledge so they can eventually do it themselves instead of just licensing the technology.
Ford disputed the notion that more US output will result in higher pricing by stating that manufacturing employment has a multiplier effect that can result in a stronger economy.
Chinese-owned former European brands such as Volvo and MG, and other models like Dacia Spring and the BMW iX3, are also produced exclusively in China.
