The BlueOval Battery Park Michigan project in Marshall will be fully owned by a Ford subsidiary, but it will use technology licensed fromContemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited , which the lawmakers are taking issue with.
"Additionally, public financial disclosures and PRC media reporting suggest that shortly following the announcement of the partnership between Ford and CATL, CATL took steps to maintain effective control while appearing to divest its ownership stake in companies based in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region that allegedly are connected to forced labor practices," it continues.
They also said that "CATL’s ongoing relationship with a lithium mining company implicated in forced labor calls into question Ford’s commitment to responsible supply chains." "Ford alone is investing $3.5 billion and will own and run this plant in the United States, instead of building a battery plant elsewhere or exclusively importing LFP batteries from China like our competitors do," the company said. / AP Newsroom)