The White House has announced plans to invest $100 million into auto part manufacturers to help prepare them for electric vehicles, reports CBS News.
Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday visited Michigan where she announced the plans, alongside Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su.
The funds will go to small and medium-sized suppliers, with $50 million coming from the Department of Energy's (DOE) Automotive Conversion Grants program and going toward helping these manufacturers transition to producing more parts for EVs.
The other half of the funds comes from the DOE’s Industrial Assessments Center Implementation Grants Program, and is intended to help with production facilities’ energy usage, cybersecurity, productivity, or cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The announcement follows several plans for kickstarting EV work in Michigan, including an electric vehicle hub that will train future EV technicians and a new workforce program that will train battery manufacturers to work with EVs.
“This funding will maintain the Domestic Conversion Grant’s same focus on supporting retooling to keep good, good-paying and union jobs in the same communities as automakers and auto suppliers transition to electric vehicle manufacturing here in America,” the White House stated in a press release.
