Batteries

Last year, a Chinese company announced a $2 billion dollar investment in a battery component factory in Michigan. Like some other recent Chinese investments in the United States, however, this one has now been caught up in political controversy.

After Virginia abandoned its efforts to lure an investment by Ford to open a battery plant that would have licensed technology from Chinese company CATL, Michigan announced that it had reached an incentive agreement with Ford that would bring the factory there.

The Republican Governor of Virginia has blocked a potential investment by Ford Motor Co. and China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd (CATL) in a battery factory in Virginia. Michigan is still being considered as a location for this investment.

The state of Michigan has offered a Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturer a package of subsidies in order to attract an investment in battery-making facilities.