“No” to outsourcing: will American automakers launch their own production of batteries?
At the end of 2020, the automotive industry faced a serious "semiconductor" crisis. This gave a good shake to the automakers and made them think about how to rebuild the supply chain of components, including the creation of their own production of batteries on their territory.
As you know, it is in Taiwan that the main factories for the manufacture of components are concentrated, as a result, the American automotive industry has faced a severe shortage of them. Ford CEO Jim Farley said the situation could not be allowed to happen again.
According to him, the company is in talks with the US authorities about the organization of large-scale production of batteries for its future electric cars. Ford Motor plans to establish a multi-series production of batteries in its country and invest in the development of "green" batteries until 2025. transport at least $22 billion.
To implement such far-reaching plans, the company will need batteries. And it was precisely with this that Ford had problems at the very beginning of the journey. The fact is that the company SK Innovation, which supplied its batteries to the American market, was accused of violating intellectual property rights. As a result, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) banned a South Korean company from importing and manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars for 10 years.
Due to a shortage of components and as an exception, SK Innovation will continue to supply batteries for Ford for another 4 years.