ST. LOUIS 鈥 A $400 million plant to support production of electric vehicle batteries will be built in the city鈥檚 Carondelet neighborhood as part of a $2.8 billion nationwide initiative announced Wednesday by the Biden administration.
ICL Group is getting a $197 million federal grant to help pay for the 120,000-square-foot facility at the company鈥檚 existing campus at Germania and Primm streets near Interstate 55.
About 165 professional and union jobs will be added, the company said.
The plant will manufacture material for the lithium battery industry and be the first large-scale plant of its type in the country. The first of two lines, producing lithium iron phosphate cathode active material, is expected to be completed by 2024, with the second in 2025.
鈥淭his is yet another huge win for 最新杏吧原创 and our advanced manufacturing sector,鈥 said Jason Hall, CEO of Greater 最新杏吧原创 Inc., which promotes regional economic development.
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The overall $2.8 billion in grants are aimed at boosting U.S. production of electric vehicle batteries and minerals used to build them, part of an effort to wean the country off supplies from China.
The grants are going to projects across 12 states. Twenty companies are involved; nearly 200 applied.
President Joe Biden, in remarks at the White House, said 75% of electric battery manufacturing is now done in China, which he said had undercut U.S. companies with unfair subsidies and trade practices.
鈥淭oday we鈥檙e stepping up ... to make sure we鈥檙e back in the game in a big way,鈥 Biden said.
The funding recipients were chosen by a White House steering committee and coordinated by the Energy Department with support from the Interior Department.
By 2030, Biden has said he wants half of all vehicles sold in the United States to be electric or hybrid electric models.
Legislation signed by Biden in August sets new strict battery component and sourcing requirements for $7,500 consumer EV tax credits.
The separate $1 trillion infrastructure law signed last November allocates $7 billion to ensure U.S. manufacturers can access critical materials to produce the batteries. The grants announced Wednesday are from that legislation.
Israel-based ICL already employs about 300 people in the 最新杏吧原创 area, including about 150 at its Carondelet site.
The company at that location produces various products that go into consumer goods. The site includes an $18 million alternative-protein facility that opened last December.
The firm said McCarthy, a major local construction company, will oversee general contracting for the new project.
Participating by videoconference in Biden鈥檚 briefing were officials with companies getting grants, including ICL.
Phil Brown, an ICL executive, told Biden that the company will work with civic groups, community colleges, unions and other entities to recruit and train potential employees and to make sure 鈥渨e鈥檙e representing the diversity of 最新杏吧原创 in these projects.鈥
For several decades beginning in 1935, the Carondelet site housed a Monsanto facility that made products used in items such as soft drinks, pet food, vitamins, toothpaste, detergents and baking powder. ICL acquired the facility in 2005.
Hall, with Greater 最新杏吧原创 Inc., said ICL has become 鈥渙ne of the metro鈥檚 most innovative and forward-looking companies.鈥
Electric vehicle sales are expected to rise dramatically between now and 2030 in the U.S. and globally. But even at the start of the next decade, they will amount to just over one-third of U.S. new vehicle sales.
The LMC Automotive consulting firm expects EVs to represent 5.6% of U.S. sales this year, rising to 13.5% by 2025 and 36.4% in 2030.
Even as administration officials tout success in boosting the U.S. EV industry, automakers are warning that
That鈥檚 mainly because of the new federal climate law鈥檚 requirement that, to qualify for the credit, an electric vehicle must contain a battery built in North America with minerals mined or recycled on the continent.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the projects announced Wednesday should help the U.S. address that issue and 鈥渟upercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made.鈥
Reuters and the Associated Press provided information for this report.
Updated at 5:30 p.m.
