11 U.S. Factories Just Got $1.7B to Build Electrified Vehicles

On August 31 of last year, the Department of Energy announced $2B of grant funding focused on overhauling or repurposing automotive factories to build electrified vehicles, including everything from pure battery-electric vehicles to plug-in hybrids to hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The effort was officially called the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program and the money was set aside under the Inflation Reduction Act. As of July 11, we know which plants have been selected for the funding, and what they’re going to do with the grant money. The final allocation is down slightly from the $2B figure, at $1.7 billion.

Priority was given to “the refurbishment and retooling of manufacturing facilities that have recently ceased operation or will cease operation in the near future,” so all eleven of the awarded projects are “shuttered or at risk,” according to the announcement released by the DOE. Two are in Pennsylvania, two in Michigan, two in Indiana, and the remaining five in Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, and Ohio. Funding was available up to half of the cost of the project, whether that was “supporting the transition to electric vehicles,” retooling a plant, or rehiring existing workers. The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chain (MESC) allowed for 2–4 Large awards, meaning the federal government would pick up between $250 and $500 million of the total project cost; 3–5 Medium, or $100,000,000 to $249,999,999; and 4–6 Small, or $25 million to $99,999,999.

The largest amounts of federal money, then, went to the most extensive projects, and those belong to Fiat-Chrysler Automotive. FCA receives a total of $534,763,049 for two projects: $334,763,050 to convert Belvidere Assembly to “a Vehicle Complex for Electrification” and $249,999,999 to convert its Indiana Transmission Plant to the production of electric drive modules.

The recipient to receive the next-largest amount of grant money was General Motors, who received $500M for Grand River Assembly in Lansing, Michigan’s capital. The facility will be refurbished and retooled so that it can build EVs instead of internal combustion-engine vehicles.

“General Motors LLC (GM) proposes to convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant (LGR), located in Lansing, MI, from producing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to producing efficient electric vehicles (EVs). Constructed in 1999, LGR began assembling ICE vehicles in 2001. The works “will allow GM to produce new electrified models and enable the facility to be considered for future EV programs.”

Another nine-figure beneficiary is Volvo Technology of America, LLC, which receives $208,224,054 to convert its facilities in Macungie, Pennsylvania; Dublin, Virginia; and Hagerstown, Maryland from the production of fossil-fuel trucks to the production of zero-emissions ones for Volvo Group’s Mack and Volvo brands. Volvo Trucks’ facility in Dublin, New River Valley, is the brand’s largest manufacturing facility in the world.

The rest of the grant money goes to American Autoparts, Inc., Blue Bird Body Company, Cummins Electrified Power NA, Inc., Harley Davidson Inc., and ZF North America, Inc.

American Autoparts is a subsidiary of Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd. It will be using its $32,617,879 of grant money to convert a complete chassis assembly plant in the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex—where the Wrangler and Gladiator are made—to the assembly of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and gas vehicles. It will be making a new light PHEV truck. Not to be outdone in the transition to electric vehicles, American Autoparts will also build a new plant to assemble battery systems in a new 285,000 sq ft building at the Toledo Trade Centre Industrial Park, where the old North Town Square Mall was. Those battery systems will go in plug-in hybrid SUVs, light trucks, and minivans.

Blue Bird Body Company, a long-time builder of school buses that has also made at least 1500 electric ones, will be converting a site previously used to build diesel-powered motorhomes into a 600,000 sq ft facility that will produce electric school buses. The project is in Fort Valley, Georgia, about 100 miles south-south-east of Atlanta, and benefits from a $79,728,146 grant.

Cummins Electrified Power NA, Inc, will be using its $75 million for “Accelerating the shift to zero: Charting a path for workforce transition and community improvement toward a zero-emissions economy.” Upon further investigation, that means converting 360,000 sq.ft of its engine plant in Columbus, Indiana to the manufacture of zero-emissions components and electric powertrain systems. The conversion should add about 250 new full-time jobs.

Harley-Davidson will be using its $89M of grant money to put new pain and assembly equipment in its 650,000 sq ft facility in York, Pennsylvania, where it makes electric motorcycles for its affiliate brand, namely the LiveWire. (You can read our review of the bike here.)

ZF North America, which most of us know for its transmissions, will be using $157,714,011 of grant money for its subsidiary ZF Axle Drives Marysville LLC, which will be converting part of its facility in that Michigan town from the production of ICE driveline components to EV components for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles.

“Today’s announcement,” reads the release on the MESC page of the energy.gov site, “complements the $177 billion in private sector investment in EV and battery manufacturing spurred to date by the President’s Investing in America agenda.”

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