Ford is reportedly in talks with Chinese manufacturing giant BYD to purchase batteries as the American automaker seeks to accelerate its rollout of hybrid vehicles.
The companies are discussing how the arrangement would work, with suggestions that Ford imports BYD's batteries to Ford factories outside the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The reports, which come from two people familiar with the discussions, state that talks remain ongoing and could still fall through.
This would be one of the largest partnerships in the automotive industry in recent years, with BYD quickly dominating the electric vehicle market, and Ford lagging behind in new innovations.
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Ford announced in recent months that it would pull back billions of dollars in electric vehicle investments, with hybrids offering a go-between between internal combustion engines and pure EVs.
"We talk to lots of companies about many things," a Ford spokesperson said. BYD declined to comment.
It would also solve a major problem for BYD, which does not sell its affordable vehicles in the United States because of high tariffs installed by the White House.
Under President Joe Biden, the US Government installed massive 100 per cent tariffs on electric vehicles from China in response to "unfair policies".
BYD and Ford could collaborate in the future, according to the WSJ
|BYD/REUTERS
The White House claimed that China was "flooding global markets with artificially low-priced exports", prompting a response from the US.
Estimates suggest that the increased tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 would impact around $18billion (£13.4billion) of imports from China.
President Biden explained that this was being done as part of the "Investing in America" programme, with additional support for US-based manufacturers.
Rumours surfaced at the time, suggesting that BYD could invest in a factory in Mexico to bypass the tariffs, although this has not been confirmed.
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In response to the rumours of a potential partnership between BYD and the Blue Oval brand, Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing, Peter Navarro, took to social media.
Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: "So Ford wants to simultaneously prop up a Chinese competitor's supply chain and make it more vulnerable to that same supply chain extortion? What could go wrong here?
"Did Ford forget the rare earth extortion already? BYD is the latest predatory pricing kid on the block.
"Aim is to control global EV production - Tesla will be a footnote if this keeps up."
The Ford Puma was the UK's best-selling vehicle in 2024 and 2025
| FORDFord CEO Jim Farley recently spoke about the brand's shift to hybrids at the Detroit Auto Show, praising the success of the F-150 hybrid variant.
He said Ford's message was "simple", noting that the brand wanted to "give Americans choice", with expectations that the automaker would produce more hybrids.
At present, Ford sells several hybrid models in the UK, including the Kuga, Focus, Tourneo Connect, Tourneo Custom and the UK's best-selling vehicle, the Puma.