To help grow or revitalise auto facilities for producing electric vehicles and parts, including in election battlegrounds like Georgia and Michigan, United States President Joe Biden’s administration announced that it is awarding USD 10.7 billion in grants.
The funds are intended to be used to convert eleven closed or vulnerable facilities located in eight states, including Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and another battleground state.
The goal is to assist them in retrofitting to produce EVs, and officials claim that the USD 15,000 investment, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), will preserve 15,000 jobs.
“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,” Joe Biden said in a statement.
The declaration is made as Joe Biden fights calls to withdraw from his re-election campaign following his recent appalling debate performance against Republican Donald Trump.
Additionally, it represents the most recent initiative by the Biden administration to defend US industry against Chinese competition.
In recent months, American officials have issued warnings that surplus industrial capacity in the second-biggest economy in the world could flood the market with inexpensive goods, potentially harming emerging clean energy sectors elsewhere.
Washington also declared steep tariff increases on Chinese imports, including electric vehicles, earlier in 2024.
“There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said.
She said that the grants will help to “ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive,” adding that in order to compete with other nations that subsidise their auto industries, the industry needs a federal partner.
Manufacturers such as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Dodge, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler, and Volvo are among the beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, electric vehicle sales in the United States grew by 11.3% in the 2024 second quarter, reaching a record-high volume of 330,4631 units, according to new estimates from the vehicle valuation and automotive research company Kelley Blue Book.
The growth was driven partly by improved availability, higher discounts and elevated levels of leasing. Total EV sales in the last quarter were higher than Q1 sales by 23%. In 2024 Q2, market leader Tesla sales volume declined by 6.3% year over year, but new products, notably from General Motors, helped lift overall volume higher.
In the second quarter, Tesla’s share of electric vehicle sales fell below 50% for the first time in the US to 49.7%.