Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley speaks during a presentation in Memphis, Tennessee, in this September 2021 file photo. AP-Yonhap

By Park Jae-hyuk

Ford Motor's management, including CEO Jim Farley, came to Korea this week to meet with top executives from SK On and LG Energy Solution (LGES), according to industry officials, Tuesday.

The Ford CEO will reportedly tour factories of the two Korean electric vehicle (EV) battery makers.

He is also said to be meeting with LGES CEO Kwon Young-soo and SK On Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won. SK On has supplied EV batteries for the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck and E-Transit electric van, while LGES has supplied batteries for the E-Transit and Mustang Mach-E SUV.

Both Korean EV battery makers, as well as Ford's Korean operations, however, declined to confirm the details of the schedules of their top executives.

The executives are expected mainly to discuss measures to cope with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which took effect last month.

The new act gives a tax credit to buyers of electric vehicles (EVs) from January of next year if at least 40 percent of the critical minerals in their batteries are mined or processed from the U.S. or countries that signed free trade agreements with the U.S., or recycled in North America, and at least 50 percent of the components in their batteries are manufactured or assembled in North America. The percentage requirements will continue to rise each year, to 80 and 100 percent, respectively, by 2032.

A battery manufacturing complex Ford Motor and SK On will build in Kentucky, opening in 2025, is seen in a rendering in this September 2021 file photo. Reuters-Yonhap

Prior to the meetings among the top executives, working-level talks were reportedly held in Seoul on Tuesday morning among representatives from Ford, SK On and EcoPro BM to discuss the construction of a cathode material plant in North America.

In July, the three companies signed a letter of intent to invest in the factory's construction.

Although they promised to sign the main contract by the end of this year and start construction from the second half of next year, they have not disclosed the specific size of their investments nor the factory's location.

Once construction is completed, the cathode materials produced in the factory will be supplied to BlueOval SK, a joint venture between SK On and Ford, which will start operating their EV battery factories in Tennessee and Kentucky gradually from 2025.