Seven months after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the magnitude of the challenge it will be for the U.S. to loosen China’s grip on the electric vehicle supply chain — a key objective of the legislation — is coming into sharper relief.
Ford, the top U.S. car producer, confirmed last month that it will tap technology from China’s batterymaking behemoth CATL for a $3.5 billion plant it’s building in Michigan. Tesla is expecting the base version of its cheapest car, the Model 3, to lose the entirety of the $7,500 tax credit it’s been eligible for because its cells come from China.
