It’s not likely that Louisiana’s fledgling electric vehicle battery industry would even exist without federal assistance, but state economic leaders really don’t care.
As Baton Rouge Business Report features in its latest issue, global companies are investing billions of dollars in the state in a race against China to power electric vehicles.
More than a dozen new incentives enacted through Congress have fueled investments nationwide in the EV manufacturing space and resulted in more than 84,000 announced jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
That’s made it financially viable for many foreign-owned companies to consider transporting mined materials from such faraway places as Australia, Mexico and Mozambique into Louisiana to manufacture EV battery components. And, despite reports that EV sales are falling short of expectations, the long-range need to reduce the country’s dependence on China will continue to prop up the supply side of the equation.
To date, some seven projects totaling nearly $2.8 billion have been announced in the state, all to manufacture materials for EV batteries. One facility—Syrah Technologies in Vidalia—is already producing a graphite-based product for Tesla.
“The pressure to create competition for China in this space is clear,” says Susan Bourgeois, secretary of Louisiana Economic Development. “It would be foolish for us not to view that as a major sector for us in the next year to 36 months. We’re addressing what Louisiana needs to do right now to capitalize on this opportunity.”
