WASHINGTON — The White House announced Thursday it’s providing $1.7 billion to convert shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities to make fuel-efficient and electric vehicles.
The funding, which administration officials said will go to 11 unionized facilities, is aimed at easing concerns that the administration’s push to transition to electric vehicles would eliminate domestic auto manufacturing jobs.
“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,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. The funds come from the 2022 climate and tax law.
The chosen facilities span across eight states — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia — and belong to automakers like General Motors and Fiat Chrysler and other manufacturers like Harley Davidson Inc., among others.
The facilities would manufacture a range of energy efficient vehicles, including electric, hydrogen-powered and hybrid vehicles, as well as many parts in the automotive supply chain, such as those for electric buses, hybrid powertrains and heavy-duty commercial truck batteries.
A White House official said negotiations are starting with the auto companies to set construction plans and labor assurances, including plans around retaining and retraining workers.
The opening of new or revitalized facilities located in the South will likely amount to a major win for unions. Many foreign automakers have opened up electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly facilities across the Southeast, but the United Auto Workers has notoriously struggled to unionize the region.
During strikes last year at the three major automakers — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler — former President Donald Trump criticized Biden’s EV transition agenda, arguing it would threaten U.S. auto jobs, in a counter to Biden’s self-proclaimed status as “the most pro-union president in history.”
Since then, Biden has worked to win over union support.