Congress takes aim at Chinese battery companies, including EV maker BYD

A bill aimed at cutting major Chinese battery manufacturers out of the Department of Homeland Security’s supply chain recently advanced in the US House of Representatives.

The Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act, which was sponsored by Congressman Carlos Gimenez (R—Florida), has strong bipartisan support and appears likely to pass.

The proposed legislation would block the DHS from procuring batteries from six Chinese companies—Contemporary Amperex Technology, BYD, Envision Energy, Eve Energy, Gotion High Tech and Hithium Energy Storage Technology—over concerns about potential human rights abuses, as well as supply chain and cybersecurity threats.

“One of the things we are doing in the House is taking a look at…where we rely on China more than we should,” said Congresswoman Laurel Lee to reporters. “When it comes to batteries and technology, we want to be sure that the components of the products that we are using are safe, and that we are not inadvertently exposing ourselves to some of the bad behaviors that we’ve seen from the Chinese Communist Party.”

A similar ban, blocking the Department of Defense from buying batteries from the same six companies, is already slated to go into effect on October 1, 2027.

Source: US House of Representatives