Washington Receives $200M To Boost EV Battery Factories

WASHINGTON — Washington will get a slice of nearly $3 billion in federal funding aiming to boost domestic production of electric vehicle batteries. On the West Coast, two companies in the Evergreen State and three in Nevada will receive hundreds of millions to bolster efforts to expand battery manufacturing abilities.

"When matched by recipients, the funding leverages a total of more than $9 billion to boost American production of EV batteries," the White House said Wednesday. "The projects will have [a] positive impact on their own and also catalyze a whole US industry in the critical phases of the battery supply chain."

Funding projects in 12 states will help the U.S. supply enough batteries to power several million electric vehicles annually and establish first-of-their-kind production facilities across the nation, the White House said.

In Washington, federal funds are headed to Moses Lake facilities operated by Woodinville-based Group14 Technologies and California-based Sila Nanotechnologies.

As TechCrunch reported in May, Sila purchased a 600,000-square-foot Washington facility and plans to have production lines rolling by 2024. Group14 broke ground on a new Moses Lake factory earlier this year.

According to the White House, Sila will receive $100 million to help build out its 160-acre campus for large-scale production of lithium-ion anode materials, making enough to power 200,000 electric vehicles by 2026. The company expects to hire and train another 150 to 300 people for the project, utilizing local talent pools.

Group14 will receive the same amount to scale up silicon-carbon composite production, which the White House said will dramatically reduce battery costs and carbon footprints. The company plans to hire 500 people to build and operate the plant.

"These critical grants for two of Washington state's very own battery manufacturing facilities won’t just mean more good-paying jobs for workers in Moses Lake—it will also mean lower energy and electric vehicle costs for families across the country as we restore our supply chains and strengthen our clean energy infrastructure," said Sen. Patty Murray in a statement Wednesday.

Washington and other states are also beginning work to dramatically expand the footprint for electric vehicle charging stations along major travel routes as the Evergreen State prepares to phase out sales for most consumer gasoline vehicles in the 2030s.

>> Read more via the White House's official announcement.