2023-06-19 16:47:08
par Sonia Romero
posted on Monday, June 19, 2023 at 6:47 PM •
5 min read
The United States is still far behind China in the race to produce electric vehicles, despite Tesla’s advances. A reason for Ford to partner with a Chinese company in order to benefit from their technologies…
In the news : Bill Ford, chairman of Ford, told CNN that the United States is “not yet ready” to compete with China in the production of electric cars.
« Ils (Chinese manufacturers, editor’s note) have grown very rapidly, on a large scale, and now they are exporting. They’re not here, but they’ll come here, we think, sooner or later, and we’ll have to be ready, and we’re getting ready“, he indicated. It’s hard to prove him wrong regarding China, which is regarding to transform the global auto industry by becoming the second largest exporter of cars, behind Germany. It owes this achievement to a meteoric growth in Chinese exports, which have tripled since 2020 to reach more than 2.5 million vehicles last year, notes Bloomberg. In Europe, last year, one in five electric cars sold came from China. This is also evidenced by BYD’s incursion into our European and even Belgian lands. In analyse, the credit insurer Allianz Trade speaks of a “redefinition of the automotive industry”. ” Soon all cars will come from China, whether produced by a Chinese brand or by an American or European brand, made in China. They meet all European requirements. Europe will massively switch to Chinese-made cars over the next few years,” predicts Johan Geeroms, director at Allianz Trade.
A partnership with a Chinese company
On the sidelines : Ford itself relies on Chinese expertise to boost its transition to electric cars.
The American manufacturer has announced that it will invest $3.5 billion in an electric vehicle battery factory on American soil that will operate with technology and support from Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology. A controversial decision, as the United States strives to cut ties with China, particularly in terms of automotive technologies. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg added an extra layer by saying on Sunday that the U.S. must take action to reduce China’s advantage in electric vehicle batteries, according to an interview with Archyde.com. Bloomberg Television. But the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford defends himself by seeing in his Chinese partnership an opportunity for Ford engineers to understand the technology. “All we do is license the technology,” he said. “It’s really important that our engineers get this knowledge so that we can eventually do it ourselves. »
Flashback : In May, Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, pointed to Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers as its main competitors in this field. He admitted that to outperform these Chinese automakers, Ford either had to develop a distinctive brandor reduce costs.
Not sure therefore that defending itself from a partnership with China by claiming to trust foreign innovation rather than developing its own ideas and skills, is therefore the right strategy… And this is not the first time that Ford has associated with a Chinese company: in April, a partnership with a Chinese mining company in Indonesia, amounting to 4.5 billion dollars, had already caused a lot of ink to flow.
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