The electric truck manufacturing sector got a jolt of energy last week thanks to a White House grant of $1.7 billion to convert automaking facilities to build electric vehicles.
The funds will retool or retrofit 11 existing motor vehicle manufacturing facilities to support electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing, while retaining and creating thousands of union jobs, according to the Biden Administration.
Specifically, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant will support the conversion of 11 shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities across eight states—Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia.
Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and awarded through the Domestic Manufacturing Auto Conversion Grants program, the funds will help businesses to manufacture products covering a range of the automotive supply chain, including parts for electric motorcycles and school buses, hybrid powertrains, heavy-duty commercial truck batteries, and electric SUVs.
The backing comes as other nations steer grants and incentives to foreign-made EVs, and will help U.S. manufacturers compete on even ground, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a release. “There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,” Granholm said. “Even as our competitors invest heavily in electric vehicles, these grants ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive—and does it in the communities and with the workforce that have supported the auto industry for generations.”
For example, $208 million of the total will go to Mack and Volvo Truck building plants in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, according to a statement by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). In Virginia, it will support electric heavy-duty vehicle production at Volvo’s New River Valley (NRV) truck manufacturing facility—the largest Volvo Trucks manufacturing facility in the world—by creating a mixed model assembly line.
And in Pennsylvania, some of those funds will flow to the Lehigh Valley Operations facility, supporting Volvo Mack Trucks’ five-year plan to transition its plants and employees to new, clean energy vehicle technologies, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) said in a release.
