Energy Department Closes on $2.5 Billion Loan for Battery Cell Factories

By Christian Roselund

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) has closed on a $2.5 billion loan to a joint venture of General Motors and LG to finance the construction of lithium-ion battery cell factories in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan. Ultium Cells plans to make large-format, pouch-type nickel manganese cobalt aluminum (NMCA) cells for electric vehicle batteries at the factories.

This will be the first time that LPO has closed a loan through its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program exclusively for battery cell manufacturing. LPO provides both guarantees for private loans and direct loans, and the Inflation Reduction Act enabled LPO to make the loan to Ultium by providing $3 billion in funding.

The three new factories are expected to support 5,100 permanent operating jobs and 6,000 construction jobs. The factories will be in Lordstown, Ohio, Spring Hill, Tennessee, and
Lansing, Michigan.

As of 30 November 2022 LPO had 98 active applications for projects totaling $98.7 billion in requested loans and loan guarantees. The projects span advanced vehicles, advanced nuclear, biofuels, virtual power plants, carbon management, transmission, hydrogen and other technologies. This is the third project that LPO has closed on during the Biden Administration. The first two were a $504.4 million loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah in June 2022 and a $102.1 million direct loan to graphite anode material provider Syrah Vidalia in July 2022. 

Source: U.S. Department of Energy Announces $2.5 Billion Loan to Ultium Cells for Three Domestic Battery Cell Manufacturing Facilities (U.S. Department of Energy)