On January 21 that Ningde Times Chairman Zeng Yuqun said at the 2024 Davos Forum that Ningde Times has established a good cooperation with Ford. Ningde Times uses a technology licensing service model to help Ford build its own battery factory.
Tseng Yuqun said, “We will also provide similar service models for many car manufacturers and even battery manufacturers in Europe and the United States, helping them quickly start battery production bases and become world-class factories to address climate change, which is our goal.” IT Home noted that Ford announced in February last year that it would build a battery factory near Marshall City, Michigan, in the United States with CATL to provide lithium iron phosphate batteries for some Ford models. The factory is planned to invest 3.5 billion US dollars and is scheduled to start production in 2026, with a staff size of 2500 people. Lisa Drake, vice president of Ford, revealed at the time that the factory’s initial startup will bring a production capacity of 35GWh, enough to meet the plan of producing 400,000 electric vehicles per year.
Ningde Times spokesperson responded: “Has accepted the cooperation invitation from American Ford Motor Company, will provide construction and operation services for its battery factory in Michigan, and license battery patent technology.” On January 5th of this year, a spokesperson for Ford Motor Company stated that in the IRA and guidelines, they did not see “any content that excludes our technology licensing cooperation with Chinese battery manufacturer Ningde Times.” This means that the technical cooperation between Ningde Times and Ford Motor Company is not excluded from the subsidies under the new regulations of the “US Inflation Reduction Act”.