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.

The Spanish venture is the part worth reading twice here. Ford and Geely agreed in July to build four models together at Valencia from 2028, with Ford holding 66% and Geely 34%.

Brussels is drafting a law that would make that shape compulsory.

Under the Industrial Accelerator Act, MEPs want investors from countries holding 40% of a global market to come in through a joint venture with an EU entity, cap their stake at 49%, and transfer technology to Europeans.

The rapporteurs, Christophe Grudler, Pierre Jouvet and Anna Cavazzini, would also require 60% EU workers, 1% of annual revenue reinvested in European research and 30% of inputs sourced in the bloc. They want the rules to bite from EUR 50M rather than the Commission’s EUR 100M.

The reason is that Europe has been paying for these partnerships and getting little back.

Transport and Environment found no technology transfer requirements in Chinese-European battery tie-ups, despite EUR 900M of state aid for plants in Hungary and Poland and about EUR 300M for a CATL venture with Stellantis in Spain.

Washington’s answer to a Chinese partnership is to break it. Brussels wants to price it instead.

Both are aimed at the same fact, which is that Chinese firms now lead on batteries. Only one of the two still assumes the knowledge can travel back the other way.