The US transport secretary told Ford to cut its Chinese ties, including one in Valencia

The US transportation secretary has told Ford to cut ties with CATL and Geely, objecting among other things to the joint venture the carmaker is building with Geely at its plant in Valencia. The European Parliament is tightening a law that would require exactly that arrangement, forcing Chinese investors in strategic sectors into EU joint ventures capped at 49% and obliging them to transfer technology.

The US transportation secretary has told Ford to cut its Chinese ties, and America’s China policy looks less settled the closer you read it, InsideEVs argued. Sean Duffy wrote to chief executive Jim Farley on 8 September citing “profound concern“.

Three things bother him. A CATL battery licence in Michigan, a delay in moving Lincoln production out of China, and a joint venture with Geely at Ford’s plant in Spain.

“When a company intentionally chooses to deepen operational dependencies on strategic competitors, it fails to act as the reliable partner the American public and this DOT require,” the letter said.

Ford called it “a wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines“. Duffy did not allege that the company had broken any law.