Biden Admin To Provide “Up To $12 Billion” To Retrofit Auto Plants To Produce EVs

Automakers want to end the week with power after it was introduced on Thursday that the Biden administration can be making “up to $12 billion” accessible to retrofit services to make each EVs and hybrids.

The cash will embody $10 billion from a US Energy Department mortgage program for clear autos and an extra $3.5 billion in financing to increase home battery manufacturing, in keeping with Bloomberg. 

The United Auto Workers, at the moment in negotiations with Detroit, has argued {that a} shift to EVs will price the trade union jobs. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated on Thursday that the funding would assist Detroit retain staff.

However, we have seen this “bailout” enterprise mannequin to save lots of jobs earlier than – at banks and through Covid, to call two examples – and it all the time winds up turning into an organization money seize earlier than in the end firing staff regardless. The UAW will attempt to forestall such a scenario from happening because it negotiates.

UAW President Shawn Fain “cautiously” welcomed the information after warning earlier this month that the White House shouldn’t push an EV agenda if it means the lack of jobs in Detroit. 

Almost like the federal government ought to keep out of the auto trade as an entire, proper? But that will make an excessive amount of sense. 

“The EV transition must be a just transition that ensures auto workers have a place in the new economy,” Fain stated this week. Meanwhile, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington foyer group that represents most Detroit automakers, stated this week the funding “will further advance the domestic automotive supply chain and globally competitive battery manufacturing platform that automakers have already made sizable investments.”

Instead, Bloomberg calls the transfer the Biden administration “doubling down on efforts to support carmakers’ transition to EVs”. In an announcement this week, President Biden stated: “This funding will help existing workers keep their jobs and have the first shot to fill new good jobs as the car industry transforms for future generations.”

The Biden administration continues to intention for half of all autos on the street being EVs by 2030.