All articles tagged with #domestic sourcing
Steinway & Sons, a 150-year-old American piano manufacturer, exemplifies how high-quality, handcrafted products can thrive in the US despite economic challenges and tariffs, emphasizing the importance of skilled craftsmanship and domestic sourcing for maintaining manufacturing excellence. However, broader US manufacturing faces hurdles like job losses and skill shortages, partly due to automation and trade policies.
Ford's Mustang Mach-E SUV is likely to lose its eligibility for the up-to-$7,500 tax credit for plug-in car purchases in January 2024. The EV tax credit is changing to include stricter requirements for domestic sourcing of battery components and minerals, as well as a prohibition on Chinese battery components. Ford is still working to understand the implications of the new guidance from the Treasury Department. While discounted prices may offset the lost tax credit, overall Mach-E prices are expected to increase next year. Other automakers are also reviewing the new regulations and their impact on their eligible EV models.
Only 14 electric vehicles (EVs) out of 91 models on the market will qualify for federal tax breaks after the Biden administration's new rules, which require EVs to be made in the US and use US-sourced batteries and minerals. The restrictions are meant to foster the creation of jobs and a new clean-energy industry in the US, but it will limit the choices of consumers hoping the tax breaks can make EVs more affordable. The new list is a big win for US automakers, but vehicles from European and Asian companies such as Volvo, BMW, Volkswagen, and Nissan are losing the tax credits that they had been eligible for until now.
US Senator Joe Manchin, who was responsible for rewriting the nation's electric vehicle incentives, has threatened to sue the federal government over too many EVs reaching US customers with battery packs that contain materials and components refined, processed, or manufactured abroad. Manchin's objections center on what "processing" means and he wants battery components to be domestically sourced. The $7,500 tax credit is only applicable to "clean vehicles" and requires at least 40% of the battery pack's critical minerals to be extracted or processed in the US or a country that has a free trade agreement with the US.