The US government, which has made the transition to cleaner vehicles a major focus, announced Thursday that it had provided a loan of up to $9.2 billion to build three electric battery factories for Ford passenger cars. .
Relocation of clean technologies
This initiative is part of the efforts carried out by the administration of President Joe Biden to “relocate in the country the manufacture of essential technologies for the future of clean energy and transportation,” underlines the Ministry of Energy in a statement.
This is the largest amount ever authorized by the ministry under a program to support innovations in the cleaner energy sector.
A loan of a similar nature but smaller amount, 2.5 billion dollars, had already been granted in 2022 to a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy, Ultium Cells, for the construction of electric battery cell factories in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.
Batteries for future Ford models
The loan announced Thursday, which still has several conditions to meet before being finalized, is to help finance a factory in Tennessee and two others in Kentucky, run by BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and South Korean band SK On.
These projects should create 5,000 jobs when built and 7,500 jobs once in production.
The batteries that will be manufactured there are to power electric vehicles of the Ford and Lincoln brands.
Ford and SK On had lifted the veil on their partnership in 2021, claiming then to want to invest $11.4 billion in total, before formalizing the creation of BlueOval SK in 2022.
Without giving details about the terms of the agreement, Ford welcomed the operation on Thursday.
“Major technological transitions have always been accelerated by collaboration between the public and private sectors,” said the group’s treasurer, Dave Webb, in a message sent to AFP.
Since his arrival in the White House, Joe Biden has been driving the rise of electric vehicles, with the goal that by 2030 half of the new cars sold will be emission-free (electric, hydrogen) or low-emission (plug-in). . hybrids). ).
To reduce its trade dependence on other countries, particularly China, the United States has simultaneously launched several reindustrialization and investment projects in sectors considered essential, including batteries for electric vehicles.
To encourage car manufacturers to locate their production in the United States, the Biden administration has conditioned the granting of subsidies to electric vehicles on the fact that the components come from part of the country.
Source: BFM TV
