$2.4 Billion Going to Accelerate Advanced Battery and EV Manufacturing

"If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future." Those remarks from President Obama came as he announced a $2.4 billion investment in the manufacture and deployment of electric vehicles, batteries, and components in the U.S. on Aug. 5.

The Recovery Act funds will go to 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects – marking  the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made, according to the DOE.  Industry officials expect that the $2.4 billion investment, coupled with another $2.4 billion in cost share from the award winners, will result directly in the creation of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. battery and auto industries.

The new awards cover the following areas:

• $1.5 billion in grants to U.S.-based manufacturers to produce batteries and their components and to expand battery recycling capacity
• $500 million in grants to U.S.-based manufacturers to produce electric drive components for vehicles, including electric motors, power electronics, and other drive train components
• $400 million in grants to purchase thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles for test demonstrations in several dozen locations; to deploy them and evaluate their performance; to install electric charging infrastructure; and to provide education and workforce training to support the transition to advanced electric transportation systems.

Michigan companies and institutions are receiving the largest share of grant funding of any state. Two companies, A123 and Johnson Controls, will receive a total of approximately $550 million to establish a manufacturing base in the state for advanced batteries, and two others, Compact Power and Dow Kokam, will receive a total of over $300 million for manufacturing battery cells and materials.

Large automakers based in Michigan, including GM, Chrysler, and Ford, will receive a total of more than $400 million to manufacture thousands of advanced hybrid and electric vehicles as well as batteries and electric drive components.

Three educational institutions in Michigan—the University of Michigan, Wayne State University in Detroit, and Michigan Technological University in Houghton, in the Upper Peninsula—will receive a total of more than $10 million for education and workforce training programs to train researchers, technicians, and service providers, and to conduct consumer research to accelerate the transition towards advanced vehicles and batteries.

Here are examples of projects awarded elsewhere in the country:

·         Navistar International Corporation, of Elkhart, Indiana, will receive a $39 million grant to manufacture electric trucks which the company reports will ultimately create or save hundreds of jobs when full scale manufacturing at the site commences.

·         East Penn Manufacturing Co., of Lyon Station, Pennsylvania, is receiving a $32.5 million grant to increase production capacity for their valve regulated lead-acid batteries and the UltraBattery, a lead-acid battery combined with a carbon supercapacitor, for micro and mild hybrid applications.

·         Smith Electric of Kansas City, Missouri, won a $10 million grant  to build and deploy up to 100 electric vehicles, including vans, pickups, and their "Newton" brand medium duty trucks.

·         Celgard of Charlotte, North Carolina, will use a $49 million grant to expand its separator production capacity to serve the expected increased demand for lithium-ion batteries from manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Celgard will be expanding its manufacturing capacity in Charlotte, NC, and nearby Aiken, SC, and the company expects the new separator production to come online in 2010.