By David Shepardson and Nora Eckert
DETROIT (Reuters) -U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday the department is working “as fast as we can” to finalize $1.7 billion in grants to fund the conversion of plants to build electric vehicles and components.
“We are working as fast as we can to finalize as much as we can — to get the commitments in contract with all of those who have been selected,” Granholm said in an interview on the sidelines of a Reuters Next conference. “We have a few months to make sure that we’re doing that.”
The Department of Energy announced plans in July to award General Motors $500 million to convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan to EVs at an unspecified future date and to award Chrysler-parent Stellantis $334.8 million to convert its shuttered Belvidere Assembly plant to build EVs and $250 million to convert its Indiana Transmission Plant in Kokomo to produce EV components.
The United Auto Workers has threatened strikes over Stellantis delays in the planned Belvidere investment, which has prompted Stellantis to file suits to prevent work stoppages.
Asked about the delay, Granholm said “there’s a whole array of considerations with respect to that and we are in conversation about it.”
Earlier this month, UAW President Shawn Fain said hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs were at stake if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the Nov. 5 election and made good on his threat to repeal investments in electric vehicles. Trump says EV production threatens U.S. jobs.
Democrats have seized on Trump’s running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, declining to commit to maintaining the $500 million GM grant.
A GM spokesperson said it is “still in the negotiation phase of the grant” and declined to forecast what might happen if the grant was not approved. Stellantis did not immediately comment.
GM shares were up 9.7% Tuesday afternoon, while Stellantis shares were up 0.5%.
Granholm at the conference said President Joe Biden’s industrial strategy to ensure next-generation vehicle production was stronger than prior efforts. “This time, the United States government is not effing around,” she said.
The Biden administration is helping automakers “cut costs and secure supply chains and innovate new technologies and help you be globally competitive,” Granholm said. “We are not just bringing a knife to a gunfight. We are bringing an armada now.”
Granholm said government has a key role.
“America’s automakers are in this amazing race to dominate this industry and to ensure that as EVs take over the global market, places like Detroit aren’t just keeping up but setting the pace,” she said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Nora Eckert in Detroit, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
