Dec. 12 (UPI) — The Department of Energy announced Monday it closed a $2.5 billion loan for a partnership between General Motors and LG Energy Solutions to construct three electric vehicle battery facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
The loan will go to Ultium Cells LLC, a company created by GM and LG Energy aims to encourage the effort to build and produce new lithium-ion battery cells, vital for the electric vehicle industry, in the United States, the Energy Department said in a statement.
“DOE is flooring the accelerator to build the electric vehicle supply chain here at home — and that starts with domestic battery manufacturing led by American workers and the unions that support them,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
“This loan 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.”
The deal for the plants is expected to help create more than 11,000 jobs, 6,000 from the construction of the plants and another 5,100 in operations, according to the Energy Department. At the Warren, Ohio plants, about 700 of those jobs will go to United Auto Workers union members. The Ohio workers there voted to unionize last week.
“Investing in American production and Ohio workers is part of the work we are doing to put in place a new pro-American, pro-worker industrial policy,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement.
“This loan will support Ohio in taking another step to lead the country and the world in producing sustainable technology and electric vehicles that Americans will need and drive over the next century.”
Biden started the American Battery Materials Initiative in October with $2.8 billion in grants from the Energy Department to build up the United States’ battery mineral and material supply chain.
The Biden administration said the current loan was critical to leave the country closer to the president’s goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
