The US Energy Department has given a preliminary approval for nearly USD 710 million in loans to electric vehicle (EV) technology manufacturing ventures. The Biden administration still has USD 221.8 billion left in loan capacity to fund other clean-energy projects. South Korean company SK Siltron CSS will be receiving USD 544 million to expand a plant in Bay City, Michigan that produces high power silicon carbide wafers used in electric vehicles. Those components are critical EV drivetrains, including inverters, and electrical distribution systems, the department said.
To handle the expansion, about 200 jobs each can be created in the construction and production sectors, the department said. “This project is an important step towards ensuring a resilient and robust supply chain in the US, and we are proud to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing,” SK Siltron CSS CEO Jianwei Dong, told Reuters. President Joe Biden visited the Bay City factory in November 2022 touting the fact that it produces material for chips that power “smartphones, washing machines, hospital equipment, automobiles — just to name a few.”
Another beneficiary of the EV loan approval program is the American Battery Solutions, which separately received conditional approval for a USD 165.9 million to expand its EV battery pack assembly operations in Springboro, Ohio and Lake Orion, Michigan. Both its facilities could employ up to 460 people. Jigar Shah, director of the energy department’s loan program office, told Reuters in Detroit that applications for USD 80 billion in financing have come to his office within the past two months from “very sophisticated players.”
In total, the US department has disbursed USD 34.43 billion, as of December 31, 2023 and it has received applications for USD 263.1 billion in loans, as of January end. The projects and the jobs depend on the companies closing the loans and deploying the money. In December 2022, the US Energy Department finalised a USD 2.5 billion loan to finance battery plant construction by a venture formed by General Motors and LG Energy Solution.