Vice President Kamala Harris this week announced more than $100 million in new funding opportunities tapped for the country’s small businesses that manufacture vehicle parts, Inc. reports.
Much of the funding will stem from two programs within the Department of Energy. The Industrial Assessments Center Implementation Grants Program will allocate $50 million for auto suppliers to start expanding their manufacturing pipelines so they can focus on converting the parts they currently make to those more commonly found in EV supply chains.
The funding announcement is seen as the administration’s efforts to double down on its commitment to expand American manufacturing and position the nation as a leader of electric vehicle production.
Another $50 million will be allocated by the Automotive Conversion Grants Program toward state and small supplier partnerships in an effort to help small suppliers move away from making parts for internal combustion engines and start transitioning to making parts for EV supply chains.
The EV market continues to grow in the U.S. On Wednesday, an Australian mining company announced it had secured a 35-acre site in Burnside for its planned high-purity manganese sulfate monohydrate refinery. The refinery, backed by automaker GM, would become the first in the Western Hemisphere to produce HPMSM, a critical raw material for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.
