The company, long focused on cars and trucks, plans to begin manufacturing large batteries used by utilities, data centers, other businesses and homeowners.
Ford Motor said it would open a new plant in Michigan that could become ineligible for federal incentives under a policy bill championed by President Trump and passed by the House.
Carmakers are likely to face higher costs regardless of how they respond to President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on cars and auto parts.
The United Automobile Workers union asked a federal labor regulator to conduct an election at a factory Ford jointly owns with a South Korean battery company.
A pesar de que Trump se ha opuesto a las políticas que favorecen a los vehículos eléctricos, si llega a la presidencia podría aliviar el escrutinio regulatorio de Tesla o proteger los créditos y subsidios lucrativos.
Although Donald Trump has opposed policies that favor electric cars, if he becomes president he could ease regulatory scrutiny of Tesla or protect lucrative credits and subsidies.
Scaremongering in Michigan, an ad claims that the vice president wants to “end all gas-powered cars” and that her policies would lead to “massive layoffs.”
A tentative new contract at an Ohio battery maker on Monday was big for President Biden’s E.V. transition, but for some, the victory was upstaged by the U.A.W.’s activism on college campuses.
The agreement, if ratified, will cover 1,600 workers making batteries for General Motors in Ohio. The union said it would be a model for efforts elsewhere.
The union, which lost an organizing vote at two factories last week, argued to federal officials that the automaker had violated labor laws.
The election, fiercely opposed by the state’s political leaders, was seen as a test of the United Automobile Workers’ ability to unionize factories in the South.
Southern political leaders say a win for the United Automobile Workers would threaten their economies. Activists want to strike a blow against a system they say exploits the poor.
More than 7,000 U.A.W. workers at Daimler Truck plants in North Carolina are set to strike at midnight in a labor action that could carry political consequences.
A looming union election at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga could determine the trajectory of union organizing at more than a dozen auto factories.
In a presidential battleground state, electric vehicles have emerged as a contested piece of the economic future — a job-killer or a job-creator.
The change to planned rules was an election-year concession to labor unions and auto executives, according to people familiar with the plan.
The automaker has placed a bet on battery-powered cars, but it has struggled to produce and sell the vehicles in large numbers.
A battery plant in Michigan will be smaller than planned, Ford said, citing slower E.V. demand than expected, as well as labor costs.
Experts said the union’s new contracts could set precedents that give labor advantages when bargaining contracts and organizing workers.
President Biden’s support for autoworkers helped them make big wage gains, and labor organizers are looking to bring about similar gains elsewhere as carmakers transition to electric vehicles.