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Xi-Trump summit: Ford-CATL battery plant shows how global carmakers need China’s prowess
Collaboration with Chinese suppliers ‘the only way international carmakers can compete with Chinese carmakers’, Morgan Stanley analyst says
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A Ford Motor electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan, edging closer to inauguration, has shed light on global marques’ reliance on Chinese technologies to accelerate their EV transition amid US President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing.
With trade and investment among the top issues on the agenda for the summit between Trump and President Xi Jinping, the US$3 billion facility, with a capacity of more than 400,000 EVs a year, has heightened expectations for similar deals that would allow Chinese technologies to play a vital role in reviving America’s once-booming manufacturing industries.
Ford and China’s EV battery king Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) announced the BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in 2023, only to see the deal draw strong opposition from local residents and lawmakers due to frayed US-China relations. CATL, as a technology and service provider to the project, is only involved in manufacturing operations, with Ford fully owning the facility.
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“The only way international carmakers can compete with the Chinese carmakers is to collaborate with the Chinese suppliers,” said Tim Hsiao, head of the Greater China auto and shared mobility research team at Morgan Stanley, in an interview.
The US bank predicted that international automotive groups would act to bring Chinese-developed technology to markets outside China as soon as possible, because their Chinese rivals were planning aggressive overseas expansion to combat weakening demand at home.
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China’s carmakers and automotive suppliers were seen as the vanguard of EV technology, buoyed by government support and consumer appetite for innovation, according to analysts.
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