Building plants to manufacture the batteries and related computing chips for electric cars requires very specific technical knowledge, according to Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, former chief global economist at Ford.
"You have certain positions that are very, very technical," said Hughes-Cromwick, now a senior visiting fellow at the center-left think tank Third Way. "These are people who have installed the equipment before. … It's really ludicrous to think that we're not going to have foreign-born workers as part of our workforce as we get manufacturing back on our soil."
Battery plants require electromechanical processes that are far more complex than those at traditional car assembly plants, with proprietary industrial systems that most U.S. workers are not trained to operate. The engineers designing and building the plant need to have deep experience controlling potential contaminants, mixing volatile chemicals, and installing equipment that can handle voltage loads exponentially higher than those at legacy factories.
"We are more than capable of building and staffing those plants, but not instantaneously," said Chris Nichols, CEO of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, a group that is eager to see the United States resurgent in manufacturing these advanced technologies. "Just saying we are going to build the plant doesn't create 500 to 1,000 highly specialized engineers and other workers who happen to be in Georgia."
But the U.S. does not have a visa program designed to enable foreign firms to bring hundreds of skilled workers for weeks or months to construct such a plant, according to immigration lawyers and economists.
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