U.S. to spend more than $3 billion on EV battery manufacturing
The Hindu
The funds will be allocated by the U.S. Department of Energy from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed last year.
The Biden administration will allocate more than $3 billion in infrastructure funding to finance electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing, U.S. officials said on Monday.
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The funds will be allocated by the U.S. Department of Energy from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed last year. Among the initiatives will be processing of minerals for use in large-capacity batteries and recycling those batteries, the agency said in a statement.
Biden wants half of vehicles sold to be electric by 2030, a goal he hopes will boost unionised 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 inflation 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.
The latest funding will help establish and retrofit battery factories. The infrastructure law also allocated billions more for the government to purchase electric buses and install EV chargers. The administration has been collaborating with manufacturers including Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley.
No room for complacency till counting is completed, Chandrababu Naidu tells TDP-BJP-JSP contestants. The TDP-BJP-JSP alliance will register a comfortable victory in the general elections over the YSRCP, he says. Alleging that the YSRCP has conspired to create disturbances on the counting day, the TDP national president advises the chief counting agents and their teams to see to it that the officials adhere to norms related to counting.