US awards $2.8B in grants for EV batteries in 12 states
Baku, October 20, AZERTAC
The Biden administration on Wednesday awarded $2.8 billion in grants to boost domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles in 12 states, according to AP.
A total of 20 companies will receive grants for projects to extract and process lithium, graphite and other battery materials, manufacture components and strengthen U.S. supply of critical minerals, officials said.
The announcement came as the administration seeks to boost production and sales of electric vehicles as a key part of President Joe Biden’s strategy to slow climate change and build up U.S. manufacturing. Biden has vowed to boost U.S. production of lithium and other critical minerals, and the sweeping climate and health-care law passed in August includes several provisions to boost electric vehicles, including tax credits for EV buyers worth up to $7,500.
“This is critically important, because the future of vehicles is electric,″ Biden said at a White House event with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and executives from 10 grant recipients. The business leaders appeared virtually on a large screen in a White House auditorium.
Ryan Melsert, CEO of American Battery Technology Co. in Reno, Nevada, told Biden that U.S. intervention in the battery market was overdue.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. is almost a non-player in the lithium game,″ Melsert said, noting that less than 1% of lithium products globally are made in the U.S.
His company, which makes lithium hydroxide for battery cathodes, is changing that, along with other grant recipients, Melsert said. “Vehicle manufacturers are really hungry to buy these materials from U.S.-based resources,″ he told Biden.
Granholm, who announced the grant competition in May, called the funding announcement “huge” news that would expand made-in-America battery manufacturing for EVs and the electric grid. Projects funded under the grants will “make battery materials and components here at home that we currently import” from China and other countries, she said.
