The under-$30,000 Chevrolet Bolt is assembled in Orion, Mich., giving GM a recent jump over Ford in electric vehicles and a distant second to Tesla.
Joe White | Reuters
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers will urge CEOs to Ford and General Motors Sources told Reuters on Monday to reduce reliance on Chinese auto parts, especially electric vehicle batteries.
Four members of the House Select Committee on China will travel to Detroit on Tuesday to meet with Ford’s Jim Farley and GM’s Mary Barra, the sources said.
Republicans Mike Gallagher and John Moolenaar and Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi and Haley Stevens also plan to meet executives from auto suppliers including BorgWarner, Continental, Bosch, Tenneco and battery startup Our Next Energy (ONE).
The focus on Chinese auto parts came shortly after a rare visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, with hours of meetings failing to produce any major breakthroughs. Ford said Monday that it “agrees with the committee’s goals to strengthen U.S. competitiveness and build an electric vehicle supply chain in the U.S., and at tomorrow’s meeting we plan to share how we are doing that.”
GM declined to comment on the meeting.
Gallagher, who chairs the China committee, raised concerns about Tesla’s reliance on China in April after Tesla revealed plans to open a Megapack battery factory in Shanghai.
The $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law by President Joe Biden in August aims to take US EV production out of Chinese supply chains by imposing new conditions on EV tax credits. New tax credit rules limit eligibility for North American-assembled vehicles and establish rules for battery procurement.
Ford announced in February that it would use technology from Chinese battery company CATL as part of the automaker’s plans to build a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan, a deal that drew criticism from some lawmakers.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio has asked the Biden administration to block electric vehicle tax credits for batteries made with Chinese technology.
Ford has previously said that “manufacturing these batteries domestically is much better than continuing to rely entirely on foreign imports like other auto companies.”
Bloomberg News first reported the planned meeting.