If enacted, Ford’s new electric vehicle battery plant that licenses a Chinese battery maker’s technology wouldn’t qualify for electric vehicle (EV) tax credits appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
In addition to disqualifying a U.S. company that “relies on technology via a licensing agreement with a foreign entity of concern” for the IRA tax credits, Rubio’s legislation includes other categories, such as an American company under the substantial influence of a foreign entity of concern, 20 percent or more owned by a foreign entity of concern, or a joint venture with at least one partner that is considered a foreign entity of concern.
“Making those batteries here at home is much better than continuing to rely exclusively on foreign imports, like other auto companies do,“ Ford said in response to Rubio. ”A wholly owned Ford subsidiary alone will build, own and operate this plant. No other entity will get U.S. tax dollars for this project.”
On the same day as the Ford announcement, Rubio wrote a letter to the secretaries of Treasury, Energy, and Transportation, asking for a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review of the Ford–CATL licensing agreement. He said in a statement in February that he wanted to ensure no taxpayer dollars would “go to enrich PRC [People’s Republic of China] national champion CATL, or any other Beijing-supported company, directly or indirectly.”
CPA is an advocacy organization representing exclusively domestic manufacturing producers; Ford isn’t a member of the CPA.
In a Newsweek op-ed, Rubio called EVs a “Trojan horse that Beijing will use to threaten, divide, and outcompete the U.S.”
“Ford’s massive project will bring 2,500 new jobs to Marshall’s small, historic farming community, but it will also bring America’s greatest geopolitical adversary into the heartland,” he said.