Liam Denning, Columnist

Biden’s $9.2 Billion Ford Loan Is Aimed at China

The US administration’s green industrial policy is drawing on the most proven playbook out there: Beijing’s.

June 22, 2023 at 3:18 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

He’s got Uncle Sam behind him.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images North America

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In lending $9.2 billion to Ford Motor Co., the Biden administration is taking cues from two sources with whom it has a complicated relationship: Elon Musk and the Chinese Communist Party.

The Department of Energy loan will cover most of the cost of building three battery factories in Tennessee and Kentucky that are jointly owned by Ford and South Korea’s SK On Co., according to a Bloomberg News exclusive on Thursday morning. In doing so, Ford aims to close the gap on electric vehicles with Tesla Inc. and the US aims to close a similar gap with China. On both counts, and as with any loan, much depends on how well the money is spent. But the provision of that money, from ultra-deep pockets, is the essential first step.