DOE Loans IDR 37 Trillion To GM And LG To Build Three EV Battery Plants In The US

GM and LG joint venture get loan funds (Antara)

JAKARTA - To support the expansion of electric vehicle deployments in the US, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a conditional loan of US$2.5 billion (IDR 37.2 trillion) for Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors (GM) and battery maker LG Energy Solution.

Apart from expanding deployment efforts, this loan is also intended to help finance lithium-ion EV battery cell factories in three states, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee.

The loan, which is expected to be completed within a few months, is expected to help Ultium provide dedicated EV batteries for GM, which plans to produce 1 million EVs per year by 2025.

Launching from Electrek, this DOE loan is not the first loan granted to GM and LG, but in 2010, DOE has disbursed loans to Tesla, Ford, and Nissan in 2010.

UAW Pres Curry, @SecMartyWalsh, UAW VP Dittes & Reg 8 Dir Smith tour the Ultium EV battery plant in Spring Hill, TN a joint venture btw GM/LG Energy Solution. Walsh touted the importance of building the facility union & having a union workforce. We agree! pic.twitter.com/v9ZCzPOYHb

— UAW (@UAW) July 12, 2022

However, this is the first loan to be issued specifically for a project to manufacture electric vehicle battery cells.

According to the DOE, the three plant facilities are expected to create 6,000 well-paid construction jobs and 5,100 operating jobs once they reach full capacity.

Based on records from Reuters, GM and LG invested more than 7 billion US dollars (IDR 104.3 trillion) through efforts to build three battery factories.

Production at the Ohio battery plant is expected to begin in August. The factory in Warren, Ohio currently has 700 workers. The Tennessee plant will start production in late 2023 and in Michigan in 2024.