Jaws dropped to the floor last year when the US Department of Energy handed US automaker Rivian a $4.5 billion loan guarantee to build an EV factory Georgia. So much for the President’s heroic efforts to stop the vehicle electrification movement in its tracks. To ice the decarbonization cake, federal laboratories have just brewed up a vast, scientific conspiracy to help private sector partners develop next-gen batteries that will help make EVs more affordable for the masses. Hold on to your hats…
If Georgia seems an unlikely spot for an EV ecosystem to arise, guess again. Despite his red-state status, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has embraced the vehicle electrification movement as a critical economic development strategy for his state.
“Georgia leads the nation in EV battery and vehicle manufacturing investments, totaling over $31 billion and creating over 38,000 jobs since 2015 — outpacing even Michigan by over $10 billion in investments over the same decade,” noted the Georgia Network for Electric Mobility at the University of Georgia in a report last year.
Georgia’s electrification ambitions earned a fresh wave of publicity during the last months of the Biden administration, when Rivian nailed down plans to build a new factory in the state with a $6.57 conditional loan guarantee in its pocket from the Loan Programs Office of the US Department of Energy.
After Trump took office he promptly shut down the LPO, allowing all but a scarce few decarbonization projects to move ahead ( here’s one example). 5 billion, and a groundbreaking ceremony took place last year.
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