The federal government recently awarded $1.7 billion in grants to support electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly in the United States. The new funding is estimated to create or retain thousands of automotive union jobs by retooling shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities.
The nearly $2 billion in grants went to auto manufacturers such as General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler, Volvo, and Harley-Davidson to help restart or expand EV manufacturing and assembly sites in eight states: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia.
The grants will especially target the development of parts for electric motorcycles and school buses, hybrid powertrains, heavy-duty commercial truck batteries, and electric SUVs, according to a Department of Energy press release.
The funding is subject to negotiations to “ensure commitments to workers and communities are met,” according to the DOE. The DOE will also complete environmental reviews of each company to ensure “clean, environmentally responsible manufacturing.”
The money for these grants comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 climate law that encourages more widespread adoption of clean energy technology to help cool down the planet. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the transportation sector is the largest source of U.S. climate pollution, leading President Joe Biden to make EVs a key part of his climate agenda.
The Washington Post reports government agencies are rushing to award the rest of their IRA money before the end of Biden’s presidency and the November presidential election.
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Much of the haste is due to mounting anxieties that a Republican administration could roll back climate and clean energy funding due to former president Donald Trump‘s stated opinions and plans on EVs and climate concerns.
As the Post points out from a point of fact of his statements, Trump has falsely claimed that EVs don’t work. In April, he promised to undo Biden’s EV-related policies during a meeting with oil industry donors. During the recent Republican National Convention, Trump also said he would “end the electric vehicle mandate,” though the fact is an actual mandate on EVs doesn’t exist. As Electrek pointed out, the former president may be referring to Tesla-supported EPA regulations to reduce tailpipe pollution that “will save Americans $100 billion in fuel, health and climate costs per year, and save 2,000 lives per year and cut 7 billion tons of climate pollution in total.”
Notably, the announcement of the funding came just days before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election. In statements announcing the grants, both Biden and the DOE framed the move as supporting middle-class workers — a key demographic in the 2024 election cycle — rather than focusing on any potential climate impacts.
“This investment will create thousands of good-paying, union manufacturing jobs and retain even more — from Lansing, Michigan, to Fort Valley, Georgia — by helping auto companies retool, reboot, and rehire in the same factories and communities,” Biden said in his statement. “This delivers on my commitment to never give up on the manufacturing communities and workers that were left behind by my predecessor.”
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