Samsung SDI-Stellantis venture gets $7.5B from U.S. for EV battery plants

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Samsung SDI-Stellantis venture gets $7.5B from U.S. for EV battery plants

Published: 03 Dec. 2024, 16:04

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Logos of Samsung SDI and Stellantis [SAMSUNG SDI]

Samsung SDI has secured as much as $7.54 billion in a loan from the U.S. government for its two EV battery plants in Indiana, a joint investment with Stellantis.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office announced "conditional commitment for a loan of up to $7.54 billion to StarPlus Energy," a joint battery venture between Samsung SDI and Stellantis, as part of the Joe Biden administration’s Investing in America agenda.

The duo have committed roughly $6.5 billion to building two plants in Kokomo for total production capacity of 67 gigawatt-hours, enough to power some 670,000 electric vehicles annually. The first plant is slated to start operation in December, advancing its schedule from the initial goal of next year, and the second plant planned for 2027.

"The project is expected to create some 3,200 peak construction jobs, up to 2,800 operations jobs at the plants and hundreds of additional jobs at a nearby supplier park," the Energy Department said, adding that the jobs "will boost the regional economy."

The U.S. government also said the project will "expand EV battery manufacturing capacity in North America and reduce America’s reliance on adversarial foreign nations like China, as well as other foreign sourcing of EV batteries."

Samsung SDI's electric car batteries [SAMSUNG SDI]

The materialization of the loan, however, is up in the air as President-elect Donald Trump has expressed animosity toward Biden's clean-energy projects. If the current White House fails to complete the loan procedure, the related tasks will be handled by Trump's Energy Department.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who was appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency for the second Trump administration alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk, heavily criticized the Energy Department's recent decision to grant a $6.6 billion loan to EV maker Rivian.

"One 'justification' is the 7,500 jobs it creates, but that implies a cost of $880,000 per job, which is insane," wrote Ramaswamy on X. "This smells more like a political shot across the bow at Elon Musk and Tesla."

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]