Shuttered auto plants will become EV factories thanks to $1.7 billion Biden program

The Biden management announced $1.7 cardinal to person endangered aliases shuttered plants into electrical conveyance manufacturing facilities.

Eleven car factories crossed 8 states that are presently closed aliases astatine consequence of closing will person nan backing successful bid to retrofit their operations for EV manufacturing, management officials said successful a telephone pinch reporters. The types of equipment these factories will nutrient tally nan gamut from “parts for electrical motorcycles and schoolhouse buses, hybrid powertrains, heavy-duty commercialized motortruck batteries, and electrical SUVs,” nan White House says.

“Building a cleanable power system tin and should beryllium a win-win for national autoworkers and automakers,” President Joe Biden said successful a statement. “This finance will create thousands of good-paying, national manufacturing jobs and clasp moreover more—from Lansing, Michigan to Fort Valley, Georgia – by helping car companies retool, reboot, and rehire successful nan aforesaid factories and communities.”

The money is portion of a larger $15.5 cardinal program administered by nan Department of Energy, announced precocious past year, that seeks to retrofit existing manufacturing accommodation into EV and cleanable conveyance assembly operations. The backing was approved arsenic portion of nan Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which was President Biden’s landmark ambiance legislation.

Some of nan factories that will beryllium converted see an idled Stellantis mill successful Belvidere, Illinois, that will beryllium converted into an EV assembly works utilizing $334 cardinal successful assistance money. (Stellantis and nan United Auto Workers national announced an agreement to reopen nan mill earlier this year.) Stellantis will besides person an further $250 cardinal to retrofit its  transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana, for nan accumulation of electrical thrust modules.

General Motors will get $500 cardinal to reconstitute its 25-year-old mill successful Lansing, Michigan, into 1 that will nutrient electrified models. A Harley-Davidson installation successful York, Pennsylvania, will go an electrical motorcycle assembly works pinch $89 million. And nan Blue Bird Corporation, which makes schoolhouse buses, will get $79 cardinal to upgrade a 600,000-square-foot installation successful Fort Valley, Georgia, for nan accumulation of electrical buses.

One of nan preconditions of nan assistance awards is that nan money spell toward retaining and creating caller national jobs successful nan car sector, officials said. Biden made it clear successful his connection that nan awards “will thief guarantee nan early of nan car manufacture is made successful America by American national workers.” The UAW has endorsed Biden successful his reelection campaign.

The president has made EVs a cardinal portion of his ambiance platform, approving billions of dollars successful caller spending connected user incentives for car shoppers and charging position installations. Former President Donald Trump has promised to deed nan brakes connected Biden’s EV spending if he wins successful November, and House Republicans person passed galore bills to scrap nan administration’s EV taxation in installments program.