The Department of Energy (DOE) says the initiative will help support the creation of new, retrofitted, and expanded commercial facilities for manufacturing. There’s also going to be a separate $60 million going to support second-life applications for batteries after they’ve been used to power vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV. That will include new processes for recycling used batteries back into the battery supply chain.
“President Biden’s historic investment in battery production and recycling will give our domestic supply chain the jolt it needs to become more secure and less reliant on other nations-strengthening our clean energy economy, creating good-paying jobs, and decarbonizing the transportation sector,” said Granholm.
The DOE says it is working with domestic suppliers to prepare for a marked spike in demand for batteries and reports that the batteries are also getting cheaper. It says the cost of an electric car battery has fallen by more than 90% since 2008. In the long term, this will ideally result in better, cleaner, and cheaper batteries going into cars like the Mustang Mach E.