China’s CATL open to building US battery plant if Trump allows

• Chines battery supplier CATL could build a plant in the U.S.
• The decision would hinge on whether Trump’s administration allows the Chinese to enter the market
• CATL wanted to invest in the U.S. but to date the government’s said no

Chinese battery supplier CATL is open to building a U.S. factory if the incoming Trump administration allows it, the company’s founder said in a recent interview.

“Originally, when we wanted to invest in the U.S., the U.S. government said no,” Robin Zeng said in an interview with Reuters published Wednesday. “For me, I’m really open-minded.”

CATL has so far limited its U.S. presence to licensing deals with automakers. Ford in 2023 announced a Michigan battery plant to build lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which the automaker has said are a key to EV affordability. The battery cells produced there would be based on CATL tech, but the factory itself would be owned by Ford. An April report said General Motors may be seeking a similar deal with CATL.

Even before Trump, who launched a trade war with China during his first term in 2017, was elected to a second term as president, that arrangement was already under threat.

Under existing Biden administration policy, vehicles with Chinese-made batteries do not qualify for a federal EV tax credit, nor do vehicles manufactured by entities in whose parent companies the Chinese government has a stake. A Republican bill, opposed by the current administration, would also eliminate tax credits for EVs making use of Chinese battery tech licensed by U.S. automakers.

Yet while Trump wants to prevent imports of cars from Chinese automakers—even if they’re assembled in other countries like Mexico—Reuters notes that in an August interview he was open to Chinese firms building cars in the U.S.

“We’re going to give incentives, and if China and other countries want to come here and sell cars, they’re going to build plants here, and they’re going to hire our workers,” Trump said in August. Zeng appears optimistic that this policy will apply to batteries as well, telling Reuters that “I do hope that in the future they are open to investments.”

It remains to be seen what batteries CATL would produce in the U.S., but the company is currently expanding its commercial-vehicle battery-supply business in its home market, and recently launched a mixed-chemistry battery pack designed for plug-in hybrids.