Dive Brief:
- A joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy received a $2.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy to build EV battery plants in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan, according to a Dec. 12 press release.
- The loan, awarded to Ultium Cells through the department’s Loan Programs Office, is the first to be exclusively granted to a battery cell manufacturing project under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program.
- Ultium’s three facilities are expected to create over 11,000 jobs –6,000 in construction and 5,100 in operations. The Tennessee and Michigan plants are currently under construction, while the Ohio site began production in August.
Dive Insight:
In October, the White House announced Department of Energy would award $2.8 billion in grants to manufacturing and processing companies for projects in 12 states.
The first round of grants went to 20 companies, including Tesla and Mercedes-Benz. The recipients received grants that ranged from $50 million to over $480 million, funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Ultium’s funds are available through the department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program, which supports manufacturing in the U.S. for light-duty vehicles, qualifying components and materials. The program has closed $8 billion in loans so far to companies such as Tesla, Ford, Nissan and Syrah Vidalia.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the program will receive another $3 billion for direct loans, available through September 2028, according to the Dec. 12 release.
“This loan [to Ultium] will jumpstart the domestic battery cell production needed to reduce our reliance on other countries to meet increased demand and support President Biden’s goals of widespread EV adoption and cutting carbon pollution produced by gas-powered vehicles,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in the release.
