With an investment of $2.91 billion, the U.S. Department of Energy re-issued a document to promote the development of the local power battery industry

Following the announcement of $7.5 billion in the construction of 500,000 charging piles, the United States has made new moves in the field of transportation.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued two notices to provide a total of $2.91 billion in funding to promote the refining of battery materials and the construction of battery material processing, battery pack manufacturing facilities and recycling facilities.

The first notice said it is expected to provide about $2.8 billion to subsidize research and development in the field of battery processing for electric vehicles and increase battery manufacturing. The overall scope includes demonstration and commercial facilities for battery-grade precursor materials, battery modules, and battery manufacturing and recycling, while the second notice says about $60 million will be provided to fund research, development and demonstration of battery recycling and secondary use applications for electric vehicles.

At present, the policy has not yet been formally implemented, and the US Department of Energy may provide funds around April to May 2022 to support domestic electric vehicle battery production.

Since Biden's election as President of the United States, his U.S. government has issued a series of policies to support the development of U.S. industrial and automotive industries. In recent months, in particular, the Biden administration has issued a number of funding policies.

Last November, the U.S. government signed a $1 trillion infrastructure investment bill to renovate aging infrastructure, including roads, railways, bridges, and high-speed communications networks. A week later, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, which includes tax breaks of up to $12,500 per car to spur consumer demand for electric vehicles.

The United States in infrastructure construction, especially in the electric vehicle industry recently introduced a number of support policies, and its own electric vehicle industry is currently relatively unsound.

In the era of fuel vehicles, the United States is the second largest automobile market after China. In the era of electric vehicles, the United States has become the third largest electric vehicle market in the world.

Thanks to China's earlier layout of the electric vehicle industry, China has formed a relatively complete electric vehicle industry chain, especially in the field of power batteries, there have been such as Ningde era, BYD and other highly competitive enterprises. In particular, the Ningde era has won the first place in the installed capacity of global power batteries for five consecutive years.

In recent years, under the goal of carbon neutrality, the European market has intensively introduced a number of strict policies to encourage the development of the electric vehicle industry and the popularization and promotion of electric vehicles, and the European market has surpassed the United States to become the world's second largest electric vehicle market.

In the context of the intensive introduction of relevant policies in the two major regions of China and Europe, the United States has made relatively few moves in this regard. Perhaps aware that it has lagged relatively behind in the promising electric vehicle industry, the Biden administration has recently increased its focus on electric vehicles.

According to the U.S. Transportation Statistics Bureau, about 761,000 new energy vehicles, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, were sold in the United States in 2020, less than 0.5% of total car sales. New energy vehicles sold in China in the same period accounted for 40.7% of global sales.

In order to enhance the development of electric vehicles in the United States, Biden set a "small goal" last year: by 2030, half of the cars sold in the United States will be new energy vehicles, including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles.

The development of the electric vehicle industry is inseparable from the power battery. At present, the electric vehicles produced by the MAIN engine factories in the United States rely heavily on foreign companies, and the companies that build power batteries in the United States are mostly Japanese and Korean companies such as LG Chemical, Panasonic, SKI, etc.

In response to this situation, the U.S. Department of Energy issued four policies last June:

Provide 200 million US dollars for power battery research and development,

Provide $17 billion in loan support,

Advance energy storage applications

Support the "American Lithium Battery Blueprint 2021-2030" released by the American Advanced Battery Alliance.

With the support of this series of policies, some companies have taken action in power batteries.

Stellantis, which is formed by the merger of Logo Citroen and Fiat Chrysler, will establish a new battery factory in the form of a joint venture, which is expected to start construction in North America in Q2 2022 and start production in Q1 2024.

Ford will jointly invest $11.4 billion in two plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, USA, and will start producing electric pickups and power batteries in 2025.

Toyota motor also said it will invest $1.3 billion to build a battery factory in the United States.

In addition, Norwegian start-up battery companies such as Fryr and CATL have also made relevant moves in the United States.

As the U.S. government increases its support for the local power battery industry, can the U.S. electric vehicle industry reproduce the rapid growth of the European electric vehicle market in 2020 and achieve the "small goals" set by Biden?

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