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The Biden administration wants to pay General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis roughly $1.1 billion in incentives to convert existing factories to make electric cars and components, it said on Thursday.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced $1.7 billion in planned funding to assist in supporting the conversion of 11 “at-risk” facilities in eight states to allow the manufacturing of 1 million EVs annually, help keep 15,000 current jobs, and generate 3,000 new opportunities.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters the grants were a “hallmark of the Biden administration’s industrial strategy” and will “modernize historical auto manufacturing facilities.”
She said it had been evident more than a decade ago that manufacturers, to embrace the future, “needed a federal partner, especially to compete with other countries that were subsidizing their auto industries and that’s what this massive investment is all about.”
The grants are for factories in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia, some of which are key in the November presidential election.
President Joe Biden has urged U.S. manufacturers to produce an increasing number of EVs, provided new tax incentives and financed EV charging points. Regulators have also imposed stronger pollution limits that will promote EV sales.
Donald Trump has sharply attacked Biden’s EV policies and pledged to overturn them if he wins president. The White House is targeting union members in critical swing areas and aiming to persuade autoworkers that EVs will not kill jobs.
General Motors will get $500 million to convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan to EVs at an undefined future date. GM stated it would make its own undetermined investment to develop EVs in Lansing at a future date but claimed the factory will continue to produce the Cadillac CT4 and CT5.

In October, Stellantis committed to constructing a new $3.2 billion battery facility and spending $1.5 billion on new mid-size vehicle manufacturing in Belvidere, Illinois, under a new union contract—a project Biden has promoted.
The DOE wants to pay Stellantis $334.8 million to convert the defunct Belvidere Assembly factory to construct EVs and $250 million to transform its Indiana Transmission factory in Kokomo to create EV components. Stellantis said the anticipated wins were “an important step in continuing to expand our electrified vehicle offerings.”
Hyundai Mobis, an Ohio Stellantis supplier, will get $32 million to make plug-in hybrid components and battery packs.
Other awards include $89 million for Harley-Davidson to expand its York, Pennsylvania, plant for EV motorcycle manufacturing; $80 million for Blue Bird to convert a former Georgia plant to build electric school buses; and $75 million for Cummins to convert part of an Indiana plant to make zero-emission components and electric powertrain systems.
The DOE intends $208 million for Volvo Group to modernize factories in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania to expand EV production capacity, and $157 million for ZF North America to convert part of its Marysville, Michigan, factory for EV component
Before awards are completed, the DOE must negotiate milestones and other conditions with corporations and conduct environmental studies.