The U.S. Department of Energy will be granting a $9.2 billion loan to Ford in exchange for the manufacturer and its partner, SK, building three battery plants, Jalopnik reports.
As part of the BlueOvalSK joint venture, the factories are located in Kentucky and Tennessee and are already being constructed. Both states have contributed their own subsidies as well to help cover the $11.4 billion in costs.
According to Bloomberg, this federal funding is coming from a department in the US Department of Energy called the Loan Programs Office, which became less active after President Obama’s first term and has not picked back up until recently, around the time President Biden took office.
Loan Programs Office Director Jigar Shah told Bloomberg Green that the loans for battery plants aim to “onshore and reshore” manufacturing.
“The goal of the program is not innovation but to get more of the supply chain to be manufactured in the US.,” Shah explained.
