(Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday the Biden administration's plan to quadruple import duties on Chinese electric vehicles to over 100% is crucial to the health of the U.S. auto sector.

"We need to have this industry here. And if we didn't do that, we would just be ceding the entire territory to China like we saw happen with solar panels," Granholm said in an interview Tuesday with Reuters reporters and editors.

China's "plan is very aggressive on industrial policy and we had done nothing and now we are doing something about it."