48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects will receive a total of $2.4 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The projects, which were selected through a competitive bidding process by the Department of Energy, will support U.S. manufacturing of batteries, electric drive components and electric drive vehicles. The dollar amount of the awards will be matched by the recipients and industry experts believe that the sum of $4.8 billion will create thousands of new manufacturing jobs in the U.S. battery and auto industries.
The awards were divided up as follows:
- $1.5 billion to produce batteries, battery components and to expand battery recycling capacity
- $500 million to produce electric drive components for vehicles
- $400 million to purchase thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles and charging stations.