President Obama has announced 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects that will receive $2.4 billion in funding, further accelerating the manufacturing and deployment of electric vehicles, batteries, and components in America and creating new jobs.
Projects were selected through a competitive process by the Dept. of Energy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and award-winners include universities, automakers and manufacturing companies.
“These are incredibly effective investments that will come back to us many times over – by creating jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, cleaning up the air we breathe, and combating climate change,” says Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “They will help achieve the President’s goal of putting one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. And, most importantly, they will launch an advanced battery industry in America and make our auto industry cleaner and more competitive.”
The announcement marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made.
The new awards cover the following areas:
* $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce batteries and their components and to expand battery recycling capacity;
* $500 million in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce electric drive components for vehicles, including electric motors, power electronics, and other drive train components; and
* $400 million in grants to purchase thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles for test demonstrations in several dozen locations; to deploy them and evaluate their performance; to install electric charging infrastructure; and to provide education and workforce training to support the transition to advanced electric transportation systems.
Source: Dept. of Energy