Ford’s Reportedly Working on a $3.5 Billion Battery Plant in Michigan
upstart writes:
Ford's reportedly working on a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan:
Ford's gearing up to announce a $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, according to a report from Automotive News. In an advisory obtained by the outlet, the automaker says it will reveal the news of the factory on Monday in partnership with China's Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a company that creates lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), including the Mustang Mach-E.
While Ford still hasn't confirmed these plans, Michigan reportedly offered $1 billion in incentives to attract the automaker. The factory's expected to bring 2,500 jobs to the area.
The project is part of Ford's efforts to comply with the strict rules set by the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which lets EVs assembled in North America qualify for a $7,500 tax credit. Although the IRA also outlines battery sourcing requirements that discourage dealings with "foreign entities of concern," like China, we still don't know how the Treasury Department will interpret these rules until sometime next month.
[...] Even still, Ford's reportedly pushing ahead with the project. It could implement a "novel ownership structure" that would allow the automaker to work with the Chinese company and still qualify for the federal tax credit, according to a report from Bloomberg. This could involve Ford taking 100 percent ownership of the plant itself, while CATL controls operations at the facility and keeps the technology it uses to build the batteries.
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