GOP lawmakers threaten to call Ford CEO before Congress over Chinese battery tech
Washington — Three Republican U.S. House committee chairs again demanded that Ford Motor Co. turn over documents related to its licensing agreement with Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology, Co. Limited for a planned plant in Michigan.
This time, the lawmakers threatened in a letter Tuesday to "consider other means to obtain the documents" if the company refuses, and said they would require CEO Jim Farley to appear before Congress "to publicly explain your failure to comply."
The letter was signed by Reps. Jason Smith of Missouri, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin. They lead the House Ways and Means Committee, Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, respectively.
It comes two days after Ford paused construction on the $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant. Ford spokesperson T.R. Reid told The Detroit News a "number of considerations" contributed to the move, adding: "We haven't made a final decision about the investment there."
"While we are encouraged to see Ford take a small first step in reevaluating its deal with CATL, we are concerned that Ford has not been fully transparent with our requests for documents and information," Smith, Gallagher and McMorris Rodgers wrote in the letter dated Tuesday.
The Republican lawmakers have been raising concerns about Ford's agreement with CATL to license battery technology for use in its planned battery plant in Marshall. In July, Gallagher and Smith claimed they had documents showing that hundreds of jobs at the plant would go to CATL employees and alleged CATL has connections to forced labor in China. They also wrote to the company in April.
They asked for a copy of the licensing agreement between Ford and CATL, all documents and communications exchanged between the two companies, and all documents and communications between Ford and the Biden administration related to the agreement or federal tax credits. The lawmakers said Ford has provided a "narrative" response and didn't provide the documents.
"We’ve answered multiple Congressional letters correcting misinformation about BlueOval Battery Park Michigan and Ford’s efforts to bring manufacturing home to the U.S.," Ford spokesperson Melissa Miller said via email. "We’ve thoroughly responded to questions and shared detailed information about Ford’s work to strengthen domestic battery manufacturing, creating U.S. jobs and helping America compete and win on the global stage."
Ford has said it is paying CATL for the right to use its proprietary technology and its counsel in applying that technology. They have also noted that competitors such as Tesla Inc. and Honda Motor Co. import batteries directly from CATL, which Ford has also done.
The plant has been expected to create 2,500 jobs and be the first U.S. automaker-backed plant to use lithium iron phosphate technology, which can make batteries last longer. When completed, it would be able to build enough batteries to power about 400,000 electric vehicles each year.
Ford has said "a select number" of CATL technical specialists would work on-site, but they would not be counted among the 2,500 jobs.
The lawmaker scrutiny comes more than a year after Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive clean energy package that will pour federal funds into electric vehicle and battery production. The law was intended in part to spur a domestic EV supply chain to compete with China, which dominates the global EV mineral and battery supply chain.
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