The funding is intended to drive innovation in the cost-effective manufacture of electrodes, cells or packs for electric vehicle batteries, improve battery safety, reduce battery failures and strengthen the domestic supply chain for low-cost and abundant battery materials. The Department of Energy further added that this is consistent with the strategies outlined in the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonisation.
This is an interagency framework of policies and actions to eliminate all emissions from the transportation sector by 2050 by promoting battery technologies that can power safe and efficient zero-emission electric vehicles.
The US Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) will provide the funding itself. Five areas have been identified for the VTO funding for the fiscal year 2024 in the area of batteries, including ‘improving the life and performance requirements of 12V lead-acid batteries to meet critical safety features while reducing costs.’ This aspect will see a funding pot of $10 million set aside. Also eligible for funding is the ‘development of cell, module, pack, vehicle or structural strategies that reduce the cascading effects of thermal problems that could lead to vehicle fires,’ which will see $3.9 million distributed.
With another $12.5 million, the VTO also wants to promote research and development work to reduce manufacturing costs at electrode, cell or pack level by at least 30 per cent compared to the state-of-the-art and increase throughput by at least 50 per cent. In addition, another $12.5 million will go to projects for researching, manufacturing and testing silicon-based lithium battery cells that meet the performance requirements of EV batteries and are also eligible for grants. Finally, $4.05 million will support the development of high-energy-density cathodes containing metal chalcogenide, oxide or halide materials that exceed the energy density of state-of-the-art nickel cathodes is also eligible for funding.
Applications for the grants will be accepted until the end of October, and the timeframe for the expected payouts is set to take place from March until June of 2025.
The last round of funding available for domestic battery production was issued by the DOE in November last year, which saw 3.5 billion dollars in subsidies to boost domestic battery production. This is not the only area, where the US American government is looking to establish its own supply chain, as the DOE also issued 710 million dollars in loans to bolster component manufacturing, which also included funds for battery production.