Ford is planning to proceed with opening an electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan, even as Republican lawmakers move to eliminate the Biden-era EV tax credits.
On Monday, Ford gave reporters a tour of the $3 billion factory in Marshall, Michigan, ahead of an expected Senate vote on the draft language of the budget reconciliation bill this week. The auto manufacturer maintained it is committed to opening the facility despite the political firestorm surrounding EV tax credits.
“We don’t want to back off on this facility,” Lisa Drake, vice president of Ford’s Technology Platform Programs and EV Systems, told reporters. “When we invest, we stick behind our investments. Ford is a company that will weather the storm until we get there.”
The Michigan plant is slated to start production next year and is estimated to create 1,700 jobs.
Ford announced plans to build the EV battery plant in 2023, expecting the tax credits in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to offset the cost. But under a new administration and a Republican-controlled Congress, that expectation may not come to fruition.
Republicans are working on policies to roll back the tax credits for EV purchases and charging infrastructure, as well as those for batteries produced in the United States under a Chinese licensing agreement. This would directly affect Ford, which uses battery technology licensed from China’s leading battery manufacturer, CATL.
Drake anticipates the eliminated tax credits to have a “very material” effect on its new plant.
“It would really be a shame to build these facilities and then all of a sudden have to scale back on the most important part, which is people,” she said. “It’s 1,700 jobs. They don’t come around all that often.”
RENEWABLE ENERGY TAX CREDITS FALLING OUT OF FAVOR WITH DEMOCRATS, INDEPENDENTS: POLL
If the tax credits are scrapped, United Automobile Workers union official Dave Green said EV sales could be reduced by as much as 40% by 2030 and planned EV battery plants could be canceled.
The Senate can vote as early as Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which will include a repeal of tax credits for renewable energy sources. The House passed a version of the bill last month.