US President Joe Biden’s administration is to allocate more than US$3 billion in infrastructure funding to finance electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing, US officials said on Monday.
The funds are to be allocated by the US Department of Energy from the US$1 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed last year.
Among the initiatives would be processing of minerals for use in large-capacity batteries and recycling those batteries, the agency said in a statement.
Photo: AP / Detroit News
Biden wants half of vehicles sold in the US to be electric by 2030, a goal he hopes would boost unionized manufacturing jobs in key election battleground states, thwart Chinese competition in a fast-growing market and reduce climate-changing carbon emissions.
The administration is also positioning the measures as a step to secure energy independence and cut long-term inflationary pressures exacerbated by Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“As we face this Putin price hike on oil and gas, it’s also important to note that electric vehicles will be cheaper over the long-haul for American families,” Mitch Landrieu, the White House infrastructure coordinator, told reporters in a briefing, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ford Motor Co welcomed the announcement.
“This investment will strengthen our domestic battery supply chain, create jobs and help US manufacturers compete on the global stage,” Ford general counsel Steven Croley said in a statement. “We have a moment of opportunity to own this technology here in the US, and investments like the one announced today will help us get there.”
The latest funding would help establish and retrofit battery factories. The infrastructure law also allocated billions of US dollars more for the government to purchase electric buses and install EV chargers.
The administration has been collaborating with manufacturers, including Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk, General Motors Co CEO Mary Barra and Ford CEO Jim Farley.
However, the funds would not go toward developing new domestic mines to produce the lithium, nickel, cobalt and other high-demand minerals needed to make those batteries. Some of those projects face local opposition and are tied up in Biden administration environmental and legal reviews.
“These resources are about battery supply chain, which includes producing, recycling critical minerals without new extraction or mining,” Biden’s national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said. “So that’s why we’re all pretty excited about this.”
Biden in March invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to support the production and processing of those minerals. Last week, he requested funding to support that initiative as part of a US$33 billion package on Ukraine-related initiatives.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
Taiwan’s natural gas supply remains stable through the end of May, despite rising concerns about potential disruptions to Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies due to escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan has completed preparations for natural gas supply and shipping schedules through the end of May. It has also made plans to increase natural gas imports from regions outside the Middle East in June to ensure a stable supply, it added. Taiwan sources natural gas from 14 countries and is not solely dependent on the Middle East,
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
Grab Holdings Ltd agreed to buy Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda operations in Taiwan for US$600 million, a deal that marks its first foray outside of its Southeast Asian base. The cash acquisition will allow Grab to expand into 21 cities across Taiwan, the Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery company said in a statement yesterday. Grab expects the transaction to be completed in the second half, subject to regulatory approvals. The purchase will give Grab a presence on the island of about 23 million people, helping it to expand beyond its intensely competitive home market. Grab has seen growth slow dramatically as it takes
RSS