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(JW Insights) Jun 19 -- Bill Ford Jr., the executive chairman of US auto manufacturer Ford Motor, acknowledged that the US is not yet fully poised to rival China in EV manufacturing and emphasized that his company is committed to an "all hands on deck" strategy to bridge this gap and be adequately prepared for the future, reported Bloomberg on June 19.
“They developed very quickly, and they’ve developed them in large scale, and now they are exporting,” Ford said in an interview on CNN. “They are not here, but they will come here we think at some point and we need to be ready, and we’re getting ready.”
China is poised to become the world’s No. 2 exporter of passenger vehicles, potentially reshaping the global auto industry and shaking up the dominance of its car trading partners and rivals. Overseas shipments of cars made in China have tripled since 2020 to reach more than 2.5 million last year, challenging traditional car exporters such as Germany.
Ford announced this year it will invest $3.5 billion in an electric-vehicle battery plant in Michigan, stirring political controversy by saying it’ll operate with technology and support from China’s battery giant CATL.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addressed the challenge in a Bloomberg Television interview on June 18, saying the US must take steps to cut into China’s advantage in EV batteries and that building the refining capacity for key materials is “addressable.”
Ford, great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, said he sees an opportunity for Ford engineers to understand the technology.
“All we are doing is licensing the technology,” he said. “That’s really important that our engineers gain that knowledge so we can eventually do it ourselves.”
China is already deeply involved in electric cars in Europe, where the China-made vehicles sold are mostly electric models from Tesla Inc. Chinese-owned former European brands such as Volvo and MG, and other models like Dacia Spring or the BMW iX3, are also produced exclusively in China, according to the Bloomberg report.
(Gao J)
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