The United States Department of Energy (DOE) will receive $ 2.8 billion in grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to support domestic battery and mineral production, the White House announced Wednesday.The Biden administration is also rolling out a new government-level initiative to strengthen the supply chain to support electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing.
It is President Biden’s latest move to support the shift from polluting gas-powered cars to emission-free electric vehicles, with the goal of making 50 percent of all new cars sold by 2030. The warning comes when homes automakers, mining officials and environmentalists warn of the supply of critical minerals the United States needs to power electric vehicles.
The DOE grant will be used for projects in 20 manufacturing and processing companies in 12 states. According to the White House, the projects will support the production of enough lithium, graphite and nickel to supply millions of new electric vehicle batteries every year.
In addition, the funds will be used to finance the construction of the first large-scale commercial lithium electrolyte salt production facility in the United States. The DOE will also provide funding for an electrode binding facility and the establishment of the first commercial-scale domestic silica manufacturing facility to supply anode material for approximately 600,000 electric vehicle batteries per year. Finally, DOE will fund the installation of the first lithium iron phosphate cathode plant in the United States.
The White House is also launching an effort called the American Battery Material Initiative to mobilize the entire government to ensure a reliable and sustainable supply of critical minerals for energy, electricity and electric vehicles.
This new effort will be key to supporting electric vehicle manufacturing in the United States, which is still in the very early stages of development. Democrats’ new tax and climate law, the Reducing Inflation Act, will spend nearly $ 400 billion over the next decade on clean energy initiatives, including electric vehicle tax credits and financing for companies that make clean cars in the states. United. California has said it will ban the sale of new gasoline vehicles starting in 2035, and a dozen more states are expected to follow suit.
But the only electric vehicles eligible for the $ 7,500 credit are made in North America and use batteries dug into the ground in the United States or its trading partners. These requirements are largely considered by many observers to be almost impossible to achieve because the automotive industry relies heavily on battery materials and components from China.
The auto industry has sounded the alarm about the internal deficit. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly all traditional US automakers, wrote in response to the Department of Interior’s request for comment: “The United States does not have significant processing capacity for electric vehicle battery materials and they rely on refined raw materials from other countries. This puts the US market at risk of being affected by supply chains beyond US control. “
