In an attempt to continue supporting EV production, the White House recently announced that it will award $2.8 billion in grants to boost U.S. domestic mineral production and manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries. This grant will be distributed among 20 manufacturing and processing companies across 12 different states.
President Biden also announced the American Battery Materials Initiative, which is intended to secure a reliable and consistent supply of the materials needed to produce electric vehicles.
These endeavors follow President Biden’s vision of EVs representing half of all new vehicles sold by 2030. If this goal is to come to fruition, the demand for the critical EV minerals, such as lithium and graphite, will experience a substantial increase. These announcements are being presented as the White House’s efforts to “increase American energy independence and shore up reliance on foreign powers for raw materials.”
“China currently controls much of the critical mineral supply chain and the lack of mining, processing, and recycling capacity in the U.S. could hinder electric vehicle development and adoption, leaving the U.S. dependent on unreliable foreign supply chains,” the White House stated in a press release.
These initiatives come on the heels of another recent effort by the U.S. government to incentivize EV production. Following the Inflation Reduction Act, GM EVs, as well as other EVs manufactured in North America, will once again qualify for the full $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit. Back in 2019, GM reached the 200,000 vehicle cap to receive the full tax credit. This cap has been waived and GM EVs will be eligible starting January 1st 2023. However, there’s a catch.
The stipulation in the bill that specifies that qualified EVs must be manufactured in North America also apples to where battery components and minerals are sourced from. This effectively splits the credit into two $3,750 parts. In addition, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a lobbying group that represents major automakers including GM, VW and Ford, says that there are currently no EVs on market today that would qualify. This would seem to explain the White House’s new initiatives and the focus on domestic manufacturing.
Regardless, the following GM EVs would be eligible for the $7,500 tax credit if qualified:
- Cadillac Lyriq
- Chevy Bolt EV
- Chevy Bolt EUV
- Chevy Silverado EV
- Chevy Blazer EV
- Chevy Equinox EV
- GMC Sierra EV
Note that three of these vehicles include additional caveats – the Cadillac Lyriq will need to be classified as an SUV to qualify, In addition, the Lyriq, Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV will only be eligible in their lower trim levels due to the price cap.
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Comments
Simply incredible how this idiot in the White House fails to comprehend that the Nation’s electrical grid AND the Electricity generating capacity are incapable of providing power if millions and millions of these battery-powered vehicles are placed on charge. This $2.8B is mere peanuts compared to what taxpayers will have to shell out to upgrade the grid and Utility Companies will soak their customers with increased Kwh rates to bring new power plants on-line. At least the 8th Circuit temporarily blocked his loan transference scheme to buy votes.
You are wrong about the utilities and their capacities to support more electric transportation. They have surplus energy at night because we sleep while their generation continue with less loads. So if EV owners charge overnight, they can support that load easily, and we need not charge during the day when the utility loads at at their highest.
Incorrect and ridiculous misinformation. Totally. How much is the EV battery-powered lobby paying you as a troll to write these lies ? Dozens of impartial experts and studies sourcing current generating capacity and the transmission capacity of the Nation’s grids prove you are just another tool. Energy hog BEV’s will overwhelm the system when the numbers sold reach a high enough plateau. Your irrelevant reply ignores high energy use at night to heat homes in the cold of Winter and cool them in the Summer heat. THERE IS NO “EASILY” ! Wise up !
I agree there is an idiot in the White House and at this time there are issues on the grid in some areas.
But keep in mind that they are already upgrading the system in most areas. In my area 7 Billion was just going into upgrades to the lines.
The need for this extra capacity is not going to hit for 15 to 20 years with the cars.
Ever notice that even with forced housing going all electric in a number of states no one worries about that and these are going to impact sooner.
The big issue we have is plants and what they are fueled by. They need to focus on keeping plants on line and using natural gas. California has already cut back to this.
Now the concern is cost of natural gas as the government has more restrictions and regulations for drilling. Also they have held up pipe lines.
While some experts claim a bleak future others say it will work out as they were doing the updates EV cars or not.
The truth is a bit in the middle.
Like the whole EV thing the web has lies on both sides and the truth is in the middle. Everyone would be better off if both side were truthful.
Few billion here, few billion there…….it’s only money
Question, was this money allocated by congress???? Or just given away like his student dept bailout? I also doubt much of this is actually going to battery manufacturing, just like how we sent over to Ukraine more money than russias entire yearly military budget, and in less than a month they were broke and back begging for more….. we’ve overthrown entire countries for less than 1/1000th that!!! I bet you 1/4th of this ends up back in hunters bank account
So Biden is worried about relying on “unreliable foreign supply chains” for lithium, powering less than 5% of cars, but not worried at all about importing oil from unreliable foreign sources, that powers most of the economy as well as 95% of vehicles on the road? At the same time draining the strategic oil reserve to temporarily lower gas prices in time for next months election.
The bloke is a woke, joke.
Think about this for a minute, it may take 20 to 30 years for US to have that many EV on the roads that will cause problems with the charging grid, but only assuming if the battery for EV doesn’t improve from now on, new material and inventions discover all the time that will improve the EV battery, and also assuming the sun and the wind power sectors doesn’t find better ways to improve how they generates electricity along the way. Just saying.
$2.8 billion is a lot, but EV processes are very expensive. I am a little dubious about its effectiveness when it’s spread out over 20 manufacturing and processing companies and reduced to only $140,000,000 per manufacturer.
To put that in context, GM and Ford are planning on spending $65 billion combined by 2030.
I own a plug in hybrid that gives me 40 miles of travel in fully electric mode. Most nights I don’t even need to charge the battery. If I had a fully electric car that had a range of 200 miles I could get by with charging once a week, or just topping off the battery each night.