American automotive giant Ford Motor’s management has visited its strategic battery partners in South Korea to strengthen ties and discuss ways to address challenges from White House’s new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that strictly limits tax grant of $7,500 to cars assembled in the U.S. with materials sourced from the U.S.

Ford CEO Jim Farley and other executives came to Korea and met with LG Energy Solution CEO Kwon Young-soo, SK on Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won and others on Tuesday, according to industry sources. They are said to have discussed ways to cooperate on EV battery business and then toured manufacturing lines of the two battery majors.

“Talks focused on how to make their battery production compliant with the new IRA’s EV subsidy requirements. As a strategic partner of Ford, LG Energy Solution and SK on delivered their battery supply plans for enhanced partnership,” said a source from the industry.

Ford has been actively expanding business ties with Korean battery makers to pursue an ambitious plan to make half of its new U.S. car shipments to be electric by 2030. Its flagship electric SUV Mustang Mach-E is powered by LG Energy Solution battery, and electric truck F-150 Lightning by SK on battery.

By Park Yun-gu and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]