Ford chief executive Jim Farley said the cost of electric vehicles remains too high, in part because of the cost of importing key raw materials like cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and relying on batteries made in China. Instead, Farley called for both to be sourced closer to home. “We have to bring battery production here, but the supply chain has to go all the way to the mines,” he said in an interview with The Detroit News.

U.S. and European automakers have become increasingly vocal about their discomfort with relying on both China and the Congo for key parts of their next-generation automotive supply chains.