"President Biden is fond of saying, “I’m a union guy.” He’s also a “car guy,” as he boasted last week before racing down a test track in a camouflaged version of Ford’s new F-150 Lightning electric pickup.
Biden is making a big push to produce electric vehicles and batteries in the U.S. with “good-paying union jobs.” But the details of how that’s all going to work are still fuzzy.
While EVs like the Lightning or General Motors’s electric Hummer will be made in union assembly plants, the factories that make the batteries to power those cars are still an open question.
Last week, Ford announced it will build two new battery plants in the U.S. through a joint venture with South Korea’s SK Innovation. On the union question, Ford Chief Operating Officer Lisa Drake said the company’s labor strategy wasn’t defined yet. It’ll be determined later this summer, she said, once the joint venture is set up."
Gabrielle Coppola reports for Bloomberg Hyperdrive May 28, 2021.