US warns Ford over ties with Chinese firms amid tensions

The United States Department of Transportation has sent a letter to Ford Motor Company raising concerns about the carmaker’s partnerships with Chinese firms during ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

In the letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that Ford’s partnership with China’s CATL, a battery maker, as well as car companies Geely and BYD, poses national security concerns. The letter was made public on Tuesday but sent late last week.

Duffy questioned Ford’s partnership with CATL at its Marshall, Michigan, plant, where it produces lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

“The prioritization of imported Chinese technical expertise and operational know-how-even in a scaled-back capacity-challenges the spirit of American national and economic security and supply-chain independence policies,” the letter said.

CATL is one of the companies the US Department of Defense banned in January 2025, before President Donald Trump took office.

Duffy claimed that the carmaker’s joint venture with Geely in Spain “helps strategic adversaries secure a vital foothold in Western markets”.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) also questioned Ford’s talks with China’s BYD on hybrid vehicle parts, saying it “could lead to further embedding subsidized foreign technology into Ford’s core supply chains”.

Ford had planned to move Lincoln Nautilus production to the US from China by 2030.