Lawmakers Probe Ford Over Chinese Battery Partnership

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Jan 29, 2026 - 11:00 Updated: Jan 29, 2026 - 10:50
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Lawmakers Probe Ford Over Chinese Battery Partnership

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Lawmakers are again scrutinizing Ford’s partnership with battery maker CATL, a designated Chinese military company, according to a Jan. 27 letter.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) questioned Ford CEO Jim Farley as to whether the automaker is leveraging CATL partnership at the expense of receiving federal tax credits, given new federal restrictions.

Ford did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times by publication time.

“Ford’s revised business plan raises important questions about whether the original licensing terms have been updated, expanded, or otherwise altered to accommodate the company’s new focus on energy storage systems and data center markets,” committee chair Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) wrote. He expressed concerns about Chinese state-linked companies’ history of “exploitation of key industries.”

Ford to Leverage CATL Technology

Moolenaar pointed to a Ford statement last month detailing investments in energy infrastructure, batteries, and data centers.

In the Dec. 15, 2025, news release, Ford said it would be entering the battery energy storage business, given the increase in energy demand from data centers, by using its Kentucky and Michigan plants and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology.

Ford’s Kentucky site will be converted to make battery energy storage, including LFP prismatic cells, which are “at the heart of the energy storage solution market for data centers” and other large scale customers, according to the release. The Michigan site will produce smaller batteries for residential use, also including LFP prismatic cells. Ford has pointed out that it wholly owns these plants and that they are not joint ventures.

Moolenaar pointed out that this LFP technology is one that Ford licensed from CATL, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted last year prohibits companies from accessing clean energy tax credits if they involve technical dependence or revenue sharing with prohibited foreign entities, such as Chinese military companies.

He asked whether Ford still plans to claim tax credits for these projects, the extent of its arrangements with CATL, and cybersecurity evaluations made related to any CATL-licensed technology that Ford plans to use.

Lawmakers Criticized CATL Deal

CATL was included in the Pentagon’s list of Chinese military companies in 2025. The designation prohibits the military from opening new contracts with these companies, but otherwise has no legal ramifications.

Lawmakers recommended that CATL be added to the list in 2024, highlighting the battery maker’s ties to paramilitary organizations that carried out the Chinese regime’s genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Ford partnered with CATL in 2022 to supply electric vehicle batteries to Ford in China, Europe, and North America, as well as license its battery technology.

The structure of the deal is such that Ford has full ownership of its U.S. plants, allowing it to participate in federal credit programs, but sections of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act sought to close what some lawmakers saw as a loophole by expanding the restrictions beyond solely ownership.

Lawmakers on the Select Committee on the CCP have long criticized Ford’s partnership with CATL and demanded results of the partnership be exempt from state and federal taxpayer funds.
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