Federal Government Giving $2 Billion in EV Production Subsidies—Stellantis Getting a Third

With automakers claiming to lose money on making electric vehicles, it seemed that federal government would need to lighten the restrictions on gasoline vehicles or dump tax money into the market to help make the vehicles more financially feasible. The Department of Energy recently announced nearly $2 billion in grants to a variety of companies to bolster electric vehicle production.

“Building a clean energy economy can and should be a win-win for union autoworkers and automakers,’’ President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This investment will create thousands of good-paying, union manufacturing jobs and retain even more — from Lansing, Michigan to Fort Valley, Georgia — by helping auto companies retool, reboot and rehire in the same factories and communities.”

To be more specific, the United States DOE is issuing $1.7 billion in grants to improve the electric vehicle supply chain, from motorcycles to passenger vehicles to commercial busses and trucks. Stellantis will receive $585 million of that total, General Motors is getting $500 million, Volvo is getting $208 million, ZF is getting $158 million, Harley Davidson is getting $89 million, Blue Bird Body Company is getting $80 million, Cummins Electrified Power NA is getting $75 million, and American Autoparts is getting $33 million. The government stated that there were more than four times the number of applicants as there were recipients, but the Feds made it clear that every company benefiting from this round of EV-supporting subsidies employs American union workers.

At Stellantis, roughly $335 million will be used to prepare the Belvidere, Illinois plant to build hybrid or electric mid-sized trucks. Another $250 million will be used to convert the Kokomo, Indiana transmission plant into an EV drive module plant. We are unclear which drive modules will be built in Indiana, so we aren’t sure if the new Dodge Charger will be included, but since it is the most publicized of the Stellantis EVs, we used a picture of the new Charger.

“There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,’’ said Energy Secretary and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm. She went on to state that these subsidies will “ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive — and does it in the communities and with the workforce that have supported the auto industry for generations.”

Provided that these subsidies are used as planned, they will help to create 2,900 jobs while preserving another 15,000 jobs in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia (across all of the companies included – not just Stellantis).