Michigan is Becoming the Center of US Battery Manufacturing (techcrunch.com) 41
Michigan, long the automotive manufacturing capital of the United States, is now getting pumped with investment both publicly and privately to build out a series of battery manufacturing plants that will power the wave of electric vehicles coming to market. From a report: The demand for domestically produced batteries has reached new peaks after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes consumer tax incentives for buying EVs with battery material produced in the United States. Battery makers are rushing to grab available land and start production on factories to meet that demand, shore up their own supply chains and qualify for incentives laid out in the IRA.
Battery factory announcements and automaker-cell manufacturer joint ventures have become commonplace in 2021 and 2022 -- particularly in Michigan, Tennessee and other Southeastern states. And they don't appear to be slowing down. Michigan gained two more projects this week. Chinese battery maker Gotion announced a $2.36 billion investment to build a battery component facility in Big Rapids that promises 2,350 jobs. The state of Michigan also saw a $1.6 billion investment from Our Next Energy (ONE), an electric car battery startup helmed by former leaders of Apple's secretive car project, to build a battery factory in Van Buren Township that aims to create enough cells for about 200,000 EVs annually.
Battery factory announcements and automaker-cell manufacturer joint ventures have become commonplace in 2021 and 2022 -- particularly in Michigan, Tennessee and other Southeastern states. And they don't appear to be slowing down. Michigan gained two more projects this week. Chinese battery maker Gotion announced a $2.36 billion investment to build a battery component facility in Big Rapids that promises 2,350 jobs. The state of Michigan also saw a $1.6 billion investment from Our Next Energy (ONE), an electric car battery startup helmed by former leaders of Apple's secretive car project, to build a battery factory in Van Buren Township that aims to create enough cells for about 200,000 EVs annually.
Nice but... (Score:3)
And where are the components or ingredients coming from?
But are they better or at least as good?
kW/$.
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And where are the components or ingredients coming from?
The requirements will change with time. Initially the only requirement is that final assembly of the car has to take place in North America. (The DOE has a helpful list [energy.gov] of which models qualify.) Then they'll add two requirements for the battery: one for where the raw materials were sourced and one for where the components were manufactured. Each of those contributes half the credit, so a car that satisfies only one will still get a partial rebate. Initially, at least 40% of the raw materials and 50% of
Re:Gentle Reminder that (Score:5)
WTF does it have to do with batteries from Michigan?
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Re:Gentle Reminder that (Score:5, Informative)
WTF does it have to do with batteries from Michigan?
Sorry if it was too subtle in the OP. It was cleverly hidden in the first quoted paragraph. Here, I'll copypasta it for you to make it easier for you to understand:
The demand for domestically produced batteries has reached new peaks after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes consumer tax incentives for buying EVs with battery material produced in the United States. Battery makers are rushing to grab available land and start production on factories to meet that demand, shore up their own supply chains and qualify for incentives laid out in the IRA.
Re:Gentle Reminder that (Score:4)
But my remark remains, how the fuck is this improving the inflation challenge for the USofA?
As someone else said, maybe because of the pork
But I sure hope the materials are going to be mined in the US.
Re:Gentle Reminder that (Score:5, Informative)
I will not defend Washington votemongering fuckery from either side, so I'm with you on that.
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The name of the act is just marketing, like most names given to bills. But there is a real connection, at least in the long term. Rising gas prices have been one of the biggest drivers of inflation. Getting people to switch to EVs will help that eventually. EV prices have also been increasing. Largely that's because of the increased demand because of the higher gas prices. But some is from supply chain disruptions. Encouraging more domestic production of critical materials and components will help th
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More deficit spending and subsidies for electric vehicles will not reduce inflation.
No, but it might just Build Back Better [wikipedia.org]. Would you prefer that these components continue to be manufactured in China [mycarvoice.com]?
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More deficit spending
Do you mean the $300 million in deficit REDUCTION [investopedia.com]?
"The legislation is expected to raise $737 billion, require total investments of $437 billion, and result in a deficit reduction of more than $300 billion."
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And now they take credit for the bill's positive impact.
https://www.politifact.com/art... [politifact.com]
https://www.huffpost.com/entry... [huffpost.com]
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Hunter Biden's laptop
Never mind the laptop. Where's his gun?
What about Nevada? (Score:5, Interesting)
The article says at full capacity they will produce around 20GWh annually. Currently Nevada's producing over 43 GWh annually. They also go on to say that they will eventually provide enough for 200,000 vehicles, a number that's slightly over half of what Tesla's producing quarterly.
A headline like "Michigan is Becoming the Center of US Battery Manufacturing" seems pretty overly optimistic. Maybe "Michigan is Becoming a player in US Battery Manufacturing" wouldn't get as many clicks.
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A headline like...
Elections. Whitmere is buying headlines. Huge ad buys on Youtube as well.
Not like she needs to. I can't even name the (R) candidate and I live here.
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The article says at full capacity they will produce around 20GWh annually.
Reread the article. The 200K vehicle number only applies to the smaller of the two plants under construction.
We'll know in 5 years. (Score:5)
Re:We'll know in 5 years. (Score:4)
I remember in the 80s when Michigan was going to be the next big manufacturing state for industrial robots. Same story, new actors.
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When we see if Michigan is much of a battery manufacturing state. Much of government spending is political pork that just disappears.
Does nobody actually read even the OP? Here, I'll highlight it for you:
The demand for domestically produced batteries has reached new peaks after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes consumer tax incentives for buying EVs with battery material produced in the United States. Battery makers are rushing to grab available land and start production on factories to meet that demand, shore up their own supply chains and qualify for incentives laid out in the IRA.
There's no "govern
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Michigan is spending, in the form of massive tax credits.
Citation needed(tm). Are there any parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that aren't Federal incentives? I don't see any.
Re:We'll know in 5 years. (Score:4, Informative)
There's no "government spending". This is private for-profit companies making the informed decision that Michigan is now a very good place to be creating batteries instead of China.
The "government spending" is in the form of tax breaks for people who buy EVs made with these batteries. It's not being given to these companies, but they weren't building these factories without the tax breaks occurring either. It's definitely caused by government spending.
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It's definitely caused by government spending.
And that was the point of my original response, long since downmodded to oblivion. In this case at least, targeted government spending == economic benefit and jobs created.
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welcome Chinese and other foreign investment (Score:3)
Nice to see more Chinese investment in the US. They will bring jobs and pay taxes. They may try to spy on our industry- just as we do to them. Big companies who invest around the world help to assure peace. They can often override government's isolation choices. Nobody wants to bomb a city where they have a heavy investment of land, buildings, equipment and personnel. The more we integrate, the less chance of war. Unfortunately we have broken ties with Russia and some others, and withdrawn our business interests. They have few commercial ties to the rest of the world; nothing to lose by aggressive action.
Maybe Foxcon in Wisconsin can make batteries (Score:2)
Text doesn't support headline. (Score:4, Informative)
How long until we mine asteriods? (Score:2, Interesting)
The metals for EV batteries (lithium, cobalt, nickel) and photovoltaic cells (Not much really) and magnets are usually situated in areas of conflict. Mining them from space has the advantage that, well, no cartels, and no one cares about strip mining in space. Refining may be a bit too much for now, but concentrating them short of that has the advantage of free solar power, no clouds, and no day/night cycles. Be cool if we could "sputter" some von Neumann nanies to do that. Far fetched for now, but so were
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If you can't do the refining in space you have to manage an awful lot of mass. I think you really have to do at least most of it up there.
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I believe (but I'm not sure where I read it now, it's been decades) that many asteroids are quite high in the ore content. Concentration of ore is already largely automated, going the last few steps ought not be that difficult. Ore concentration as opposed to ore refining. Different things. Copper I think is the most commonly concentrated at or near where it's mined.
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Except lithium, the largest single component is not produced in conflict ares, Australia is the biggest producer for a start.
https://investingnews.com/dail... [investingnews.com]
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The ores are not located in areas of conflict, these ores are very common but with environmental protection laws as they are in the developed world nobody can afford to open mines in any place but developing nations where environmental laws are lacking.
An example of this are rare earth elements, or REE. There's some very good existing mines for REE in the USA but nearly all of them were forced to close over issues of naturally occurring radioactive materials, or NORM. NORM would be things like uranium, th
Stop scaring kids (Score:2)
...while complely ignoring there are zero NIMBY issues in space.... ...AND ignoring no, we have not solved climate change.