If it’s been hard to buy the car you want, it’s probably more than just demand — the coronavirus pandemic brought supply-chain issues for everything from shipping and semiconductors that have yet to be worked out; there are political and economic tensions with China; and uncertainty as automakers shift toward electric vehicles, outpaced by companies overseas. If U.S. production “remains slow in the face of this competition, it could lock in a reliance on imported vehicles and components, particularly batteries, for decades to come,” the Center for American Progress warned in 2020. But plans for facilities to build all kinds of EVs and their batteries are taking shape, and there's a push to expand a network of charging stations nationwide. As momentum gathers, a growing number of companies are setting up shop in the U.S., including a Japanese carmaker that is planning to spend billions on expansion and to add jobs.

Related: Electric Cars Cheaper Than a Tesla

Toyota is increasing the amount it's investing in a battery plant in North Carolina that's expected to open in 2025. The company plans to spend $5.6 billion on the facility, which has planned capacity to produce 800,000 batteries for EVs, plug-in hybrids, and hybrids, and “has space for another line capable of 400,000 additional units per year,” according to Autoweek. Toyota's additional investment brings with it the potential for 350 more jobs, according to the automaker, bringing total employment at the plant to about 2,100.

Related: Electric Car Regrets: What To Know Before Buying One

In a push to expand their ability to produce electric vehicles for the North American market, South Korean battery manufacturer LG and Japanese automaker Honda plan to invest $4.4 billion to produce batteries for electric Honda cars in the U.S. The plant's location has yet to be determined, but the companies said that construction is set to begin in early 2023, and mass production of advanced lithium-ion battery cells is slated for the end of 2025. According to Asia Nikkei, the companies are considering setting up shop in Ohio, where Honda has three automotive plants.

Related: 15 Reasons I Drive an Electric Car

Ford and a South Korean supplier have committed to spending $11.4 billion on two battery plants in Kentucky and one in Tennessee, where an assembly plant also would be located, The New York Times reported in October. “The industry is on a fast road to electrification,” Ford’s executive chairman, William C. Ford Jr., said. “And those who aren’t are going to be left behind.” The project has been dubbed Blue Oval City.

In a bid to unseat Tesla as the top EV maker, General Motors and LG Energy Solution — working together as Ultium Cells — have four battery plants in the works, including operations in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan. The Ohio plant is expected to begin production of lithium-ion battery cells for EVs this year. The New York Times says the project has attracted $2.5 billion in loans from the U.S. Energy Department as part of Ultium’s $35 billion investment in EVs and autonomous vehicles by 2025.

Panasonic, which has partnered with Tesla on a gigafactory in Nevada, said in July that it plans to build a $4 billion EV battery plant in Kansas. Autoweek expects Tesla to be the largest customer of the Kansas factory.

With the help of $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives, Hyundai is building a $5.5 billion plant dedicated to electric vehicles on 2,900 acres near Savannah, Georgia, The Associated Press said in July. The plant — the largest economic deal in the state’s history — is expected to hire 8,100 workers.

The state of Georgia and local governments agreed in May to $1.5 billion in incentives to bring a $5 billion Rivian Automotive plant to Atlanta, The Associated Press said. At the time, it was the largest auto assembly subsidy package in U.S. history, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First. Rivian is a startup manufacturer of electric trucks and commercial vans based in Irvine, California.

Production is expected to start by 2025 at a $5.5 billion factory in Kokomo, Indiana, that will supply battery packs for Jeeps, Ram trucks, and other vehicles under a partnership between Stellantis and Samsung, The New York Times says. It’s the second such project from Stellantis, joining a battery factory in Windsor, Ontario, with LG Energy Solution, where it makes minivans. Stellantis (created in 2021 when Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot merged) hopes to sell 5 million EVs by 2030.

China dominates the production of cathodes and anodes — “two of the most essential and expensive components of lithium-ion batteries,” Axios says. Tesla co-founder and CEO of battery component company Redwood Materials told the publication that his company is putting $2 billion into building the components in the United States. Anode production is expected to begin this year, with cathodes to follow by 2024.

German carmaker Mercedes-Benz, which has been making cars in Alabama for decades, is investing $1 billion in a battery plant there to supply a retooled manufacturing complex making a line of electric SUVs, The New York Times says. The plant was scheduled to be fully operational in April with 600 employees.

Hyperion announced a $300 million investment in a Columbus, Ohio, facility to research and make hydrogen fuel cell stacks, including those that would power its futuristic XP-1 sports car, according to The Columbus Dispatch. That company, founded in Columbus in 2011, plans to move its HQ back to the midwest and employ 700 people.

Retail giant Walmart announced in July that it was buying 4,500 all-electric vans from automotive startup Canoo — with an option for up to 10,000 vehicles — to expand its last-mile delivery fleet. (Canoo, originally a Texas company, has moved to Walmart’s hometown of Benton, Arkansas, but it says it has teams in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan, and California.) The EVs “will be driven by Walmart associates and used to deliver online orders from groceries to general merchandise” from 3,800 of its stores within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population, the company said. Walmart also signed an earlier deal with GM’s BrightDrop unit for 5,000 EV delivery vans.

Online-retailer Amazon has been working with EV startup Rivian since 2019 on an all-electric delivery vehicle for its Prime service, investing in the company through its Climate Pledge Fund. The company said in July that it was rolling the vans out nationwide, a push that CEO Andy Jassy says should put 100,000 of them on the road by 2030.

After taking delivery of 500 of GM’s BrightDrop commercial EV delivery vans in December, the delivery giant ordered another 2,000 the next month and hinted at a “potentially increase to 20,000 electric vans,” according to CNBC. “They have a vehicle that works as advertised and we love it,” Richard Smith, FedEx’s regional president of the Americas, said of the vehicles already making deliveries in California. “We want to buy a lot more of them.” Verizon is said to be in line for a second, smaller BrightDrop van next year.

The U.S. Postal Service said in July that it would increase the number of electric trucks in its delivery fleet to at least 40%, according to The Washington Post. It had agreed to buy as many as 165,000 vehicles from Oshkosh Defense, based in Wisconsin, with 10% of those being electric. It changed the order to about 25,000 EVs with another 34,500 coming from other manufacturers, the newspaper said.

UPS said in 2020 that it would buy 10,000 electric delivery vehicles from Arrival, taking a minority stake in the company. Arrival is a British startup, but production of the vans is expected to start this year in the U.S. and England. “The two companies are collaborating to design vehicles for drivers making dozens of daily stops, who are hauling ever-growing volumes of goods,” says Canary Media, which covers environmental issues.

EV charging network Volta plans to install another 1,000 fast-charging stalls at 500 Walgreens locations, significantly expanding a partnership between the two companies that began in 2019. “Drugstores and grocery stores are good spots for EV charging stations,” Engadget says, “since drivers can top off their battery while grabbing some essentials.” Volta was founded in San Francisco.

General Motors, Pilot Travel Centers, and Los Angeles-based EVgo said in July that they would team up to build a network of 2,000 charging stations at 50-mile intervals along U.S. highways, locating the chargers at up to 500 Flying J stations. The Detroit Free Press says construction was expected to start immediately “with the first chargers operating sometime in 2023.”

Ikea unveiled a collaboration with Electrify America in August to put more than 200 ultrafast charging stations at more than 25 of its U.S. locations by the end of 2023. The company said in a statement that the new stations would quadruple its total number of EV chargers, making them available in 18 states. Another 225 chargers are planned for use with delivery fleet electric vehicles as well. The project’s cost wasn’t disclosed.

Following similar moves by other companies, Volkswagen is “looking to establish new assembly and battery facilities

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/08/volkswagen-looks-to-build-new-ev-facilities-in-the-us-exec-says.html

 in the U.S.,” according to CNBC in June. That’s in addition to the Tennessee plant ramping up production of its VW ID.4 crossover EV.

Like Cheapism's content? Be sure to follow us

Note: Cheapism does not accept or publish guest blog posts