Shouldn’t Ford have invested in battery plants a few years ago?
Ford CEO Jim Farley would like to see more large lithium-ion battery plants in the U.S. to avoid EV battery shortages, similar to those with chips right now.
The company intends to talk about this topic with the government:
““We need to bring large-scale battery production to the U.S., and we’ll be talking to the government about” that, CEO Jim Farley said Wednesday at the Wolfe Research Auto Conference. “We can’t go through what we’re doing with chips right now with Taiwan. It’s just too important.””
“This is a huge, multi-solution opportunity,” Farley said. “For legacy players, we have to deal with our labor issues, so more in-sourcing is more important to us.” – Automotive News
Of course, we can’t forget that Ford is affected by the most recent SK Innovation battery ban in the U.S.
Jim Farley calls for a voluntary settlement between LG Chem’s LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation, but at the same time is forced to start looking for a new supplier for the Ford F-150 Electric. Knowing the situation, other battery manufacturers now have an upper hand in the negotiations.
Utilizing the chip shortage to convince the government to establish a new set of incentives for the battery industry sounds like a smart idea.
Europe is already getting tons of new battery investments in multiple countries and it would be great to see like 5 or 10 new battery gigafactories in various states as well.
However, we guess that it would’ve been far better to think about the battery supply earlier, much earlier.
Energy and storing energy is one of the key areas for any country and because of the electrification, a crucial element of this and next decade.
Source:Automotive News
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