Washington — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will deliver an economic speech Thursday at Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn.
Yellen’s visit to the plant that builds Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning truck will include a 2 p.m. speech on President Joe Biden’s economic growth strategy.
“We’re looking forward to hosting Treasury Secretary Yellen at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn for an up-close look at the state-of-the-art facility where Ford is leading the EV revolution,” Ford spokesperson Melissa Miller said Tuesday.
Yellen also plans to meet with local leaders and small business owners in Detroit, the Treasury Department said in a press release last Thursday.
“The Secretary will speak about how the President’s response to the pandemic spurred one of the fastest recoveries in our nation’s history and restored economic stability,” the agency said in the release, “and how the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act represent a historic investment in making our economy more productive, more resilient, and fairer for workers and businesses.”
Yellen’s visit comes around two weeks after Ford announced it would eliminate 2,000 salaried jobs and 1,000 contract jobs, mostly in Michigan, in a restructuring to support “significant transformation” toward electrification within the company. Michigan officials approved a $101 million incentive package for the company in late June, which included a requirement to add more than 3,000 hourly jobs.
Ford announced in August that electric vehicle sales grew four-fold over last year, with the F-150 Lightning selling within eight days on average.
The visit also comes ahead of Biden’s planned visit to the Detroit Auto Show next Wednesday. Biden, too, is expected to highlight the EV manufacturing “boom” in the U.S. in response to his economic plan, according to the White House.
Biden visited the Rouge plant in May last year to tout those proposals and to test drive the F-150 Lightning. Biden has also attended the Detroit Auto Show in the past, including in 2014 in a show of support for the city during its bankruptcy restructuring while serving as vice president, and again in 2017.
The Biden administration has sought to accelerate the auto industry’s transition to electric vehicles. The bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year included $5 billion to build out a national network of EV chargers on major highways.
Congress approved $52 billion for domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing, crucial EV components. The recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act included billions for car companies to build new plants and revamp old ones to build EVs and their components. It also included expanded tax credits that will make EVs cheaper for low- and middle-income buyers.
rbeggin@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @rbeggin