US DOE awards $50 million to six states to help manufacturers in EV supply chain

The US Department of Energy will split $50 million between six states with sizable workforces in the automotive industry to help small- and medium-sized suppliers adapt manufacturing facilities for the electric vehicle supply chain, the department said Aug. 15.

The states that received grants are Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois. The funding, awarded by the DOE's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, is a part of the department's $2 billion Domestic Automotive Manufacturing Auto Conversion Grant program, authorized under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

The program aims to expand manufacturing of light-, medium- and heavy-duty EVs and components and to support commercial facilities, including for vehicle assembly, component assembly and related vehicle part manufacturing.

"Under President [Joe] Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris' leadership, America's auto communities and the workforces they support finally have the tools they need to compete and thrive in the 21st century clean energy economy," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in the department's Aug. 15 press release. "By helping states and manufacturers navigate the emerging EV manufacturing industry, today's announcements will help ensure the workforces that defined America's auto sector for the last 100 years will have the opportunity to shape the next 100 years."

The breakdown of funding is as follows (totals have been estimated):

• Michigan: $18.4 million
• Ohio: $9.4 million
• Indiana: $8.8 million
• Kentucky: $4.9 million
• Tennessee: $4.5 million
• Illinois: $4.0 million

To be eligible for the funding, awardees must be a state, US territory or Washington DC, have at least 0.5% of its workforce employed by the automotive industry and qualify for at least $4 million of grant funding, according to the DOE release. The state allocations were determined after an April request for information that sought input from local, state, federal and non-government entities on ways to help automotive suppliers seeking to transition to electric, hybrid or fuel cell vehicle supply chains, the DOE said.

In the same release, the DOE also announced it was awarding $1.5 million to three teams of technical assistance providers under its Industrial Training and Assessment Center program. The teams, led by the Purdue University Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Regents of the University of Michigan and the Trustees of the University of Illinois, will help create a playbook to assist internal combustion engine suppliers with the transition to EV or adjacent markets, the DOE said.

Previous award

The $50 million in funding builds on a previous $1.7 billion in total grants awarded in Jul(opens in a new tab)y to help modernize and convert 11 traditional auto manufacturing facilities into plants that can produce electric vehicles and their components. The facilities, which were at risk or already shuttered, are in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia.

The funding, also provided under the Domestic Automotive Manufacturing Auto Conversion Grant program, is anticipated to help save more than 15,000 jobs and create over 2,900 jobs, the Biden administration said in a July 11 press briefing.