ImpactAlpha, June 23 – A flood of funding and tax incentives championed by the Biden administration is remaking American manufacturing. The latest signal: the Department of Energy’s $9.2 billion conditional loan to Ford for the construction of three lithium ion battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee.
The battery plants are among the 50 projects across the electric vehicle supply chain representing $56 billion in investments and a potential 38,000 jobs that have been announced since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed last August, according to Charged’s EV Supply Chain Tracker.
The conditional loan is one of the largest to date by DOE’s Loan Programs Office, a key conduit for Biden’s efforts to reshore production and supply chains for critical, next-gen technologies such as renewable power, electric vehicles, and carbon capture. The IRA boosted the office’s lending power to more than $400 billion.
The three battery plants by BlueOval SK, a joint venture of Ford and South Korea’s SK On, are located in disadvantaged communities and are expected to create 7,500 jobs once operating, in keeping with the administration’s Justice40 Initiative.
Last year, LPO approved a $2.5 billion loan to Ultium Cell, a joint venture between GM and South Korea’s LG Energy, to construct lithium ion battery cell plants in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan.
