An executive responsible for sourcing parts for Ford Motor Co.’s all-electric vehicles left the Dearborn automaker this week.
Annie Liu was the executive director of purchasing for the Ford Model e line of electric products and technology. She was not a corporate officer, but Lisa Drake, Ford vice president of EV industrialization, highlighted the former Tesla Inc. executive during a media and analyst call in July 2022 discussing the automaker’s contracts with suppliers of EV battery raw materials after being hired “several months” earlier.
Drake had hailed her for her knowledge in technology supply chain development, especially raw materials and mining. Part of Liu’s role was finding North American sourcing for the needed materials — which is critical for EVs to qualify for the $7,500 federal subsidy included in the Inflation Reduction Act and as domestic sourcing is projected to lag EV assembly and battery manufacturing capacity.
Liu’s departure is unrelated to the shutdown at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn that was extended on Friday for a fourth week, Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said in a statement.
“She said that her plans changed, influenced by the needs of her family,” Reid said, noting that he had spoken with her Thursday night. “Like others here, I wished her the best. She expressed the same for Ford and where it’s going.”
The Detroit News left a voicemail with Liu Friday afternoon.
Reid said because Liu isn’t a top officer, the company wouldn’t typically disclose information regarding a replacement, though Ford has a large team involved in supply-chain management.
While discussing Ford’s 2022 net income loss earlier this month, company executives emphasized one of the automaker’s biggest challenges is around supply chains, particularly when it comes to overhauling its traditional systems quickly enough.
Liu doesn’t list Ford on her professional LinkedIn profile, which says she spent 15 years with Microsoft Corp. before joining Tesla Inc. for almost three and a half years in January 2017. She left there as head of supply chain, battery and energy in May 2020. She also serves on lithium extractor Vulcan Energy Resource Ltd.’s board of directors.
The Detroit Free Press first reported Liu’s departure.
Meanwhile, the F-150 Lightning plant will stay down next week as the supplier of its batteries, South Korea’s SK On, changes how it produces the power cells in Georgia. The Dearborn assembly plant halted production on Feb. 5 after a truck’s battery caught fire in a Dearborn holding lot and spread to two other pickups nearby.
bnoble@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @BreanaCNoble