Ford Purchasing’s failure to secure reliable EV a battery sourcing results in a taxpayer bailout to fund offshore companies to build N.A. factories.
Our Purchasing pro’s continue to be exempt from headcount reductions despite critical supply chain failures (still got their bonuses).
In fact, look at HTT’s new role today after his team has jacked domestic suppliers. Big reward!
Don’t see too many Ford’s in supplier parking lots. Bet taxpayers will feel the same.
Ford has invested heavily in all-electric vehicle development in recent months, as well as EV battery production, both domestic with the under-construction BlueOval City complex, as well as outside of the U.S. in various other countries. But while the vast majority of lithium and other raw materials are mined and semiconductor chips are made in countries other than America, it seems that President Joe Biden wants to avoid the same problem when it comes to making batteries for electric vehicles, as his administration has announced that it will spend $3.16 billion in an effort to boost domestic EV battery production in the coming years.
That funding will come from Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today, and will reportedly support the creation of new, retrofitted, and expanded commercial EV battery production facilities as well as manufacturing demonstrations and battery recycling. The DOE will also be spending an additional $60 million to support second-life applications for batteries that come from EVs to ensure they don’t wind up in a junkyard.
These initiatives – dubbed “Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing” and “Electric Drive Vehicle Battery Recycling and Second Life Applications” – aim to create a robust domestic battery supply chain by 2030 in part by sourcing the raw materials needed to produce lithium-ion batteries domestically in a sustainable manner, as well as producing and recycling those batteries in America as well.
In recent months, the Biden Administration has also created an EV charging action plan designed to improve infrastructure and ordered federal agencies to stop buying ICE vehicles by 2027 as it aims to vastly expand all-electric vehicle sales in the coming years. However, as Ford Authority reported last month, that plan faces a major challenge stemming from the rising cost of EV batteries brought on by ongoing supply chain issues.