America Invested in EV Battery Plants. Now They May Be Stranded. (msn.com)
- Reference: 0178130247
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/21/1626243/america-invested-in-ev-battery-plants-now-they-may-be-stranded
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-us-invested-in-ev-battery-plants-now-they-may-be-stranded/ar-AA1H1hip
> Over the past three years, companies have invested tens of billions of dollars toward making electric vehicles in the United States, buoyed by tax incentives aimed at helping American businesses compete with China. Now, those companies are facing a strange problem: too much manufacturing capacity, not enough demand.
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> As sales of electric vehicles slow and congressional Republicans [2]take aim at EV tax credits and incentives, the United States is slated to have more battery and EV manufacturing than it needs, according to a [3]report released Wednesday by the Rhodium Group, a research firm. That could leave factories — many of which are already operating or under construction — stranded if car sales continue to slump. "The rug is being pulled out from under these manufacturers," said Hannah Pitt, a director in Rhodium's energy and climate practice...
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> After [America's 2022 climate bill], battery investment in the U.S. skyrocketed. Companies went from investing about $1 billion per quarter in 2022 to $11 billion per quarter in 2024. Most of that battery investment went to red states, including in the South's " [4]Battery Belt ," where manufacturers were drawn to inexpensive land and a nonunionized workforce. Now, however, that battery boom is teetering. In the first three months of 2025, companies canceled $6 billion in battery manufacturing — a record. EV sales have slowed...
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> According to the new report, the United States has almost enough battery capacity announced or under development to meet demand all the way to 2030 if EV sales continue to slump. That might sound like a good thing — but if EV sales drop further, it means companies will be left with factories they won't be able to use. At the same time, China has excess battery capacity. The country has enough manufacturing to meet the entire world's demand for batteries — and may be looking to off-load them onto other markets... And if the incentives for using U.S.-made batteries disappear, the nation's manufacturers would be left high and dry.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-us-invested-in-ev-battery-plants-now-they-may-be-stranded/ar-AA1H1hip
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/16/trump-tax-bill-senate-republicans-child-tax-credit/
[3] https://rhg.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Global-Clean-Investment-Monitor-Electric-Vehicles-and-Batteries.pdf
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/17/georgia-evs-battery-belt/
No more U.S. built cars for me (Score:4, Interesting)
Meh. I'm Canadian and there's no way I'm buying a car built in the U.S. until the government shows us some respect again. If Canadians are at least partly to blame for the decrease in demand for American made EVs then so be it.
Re: (Score:2)
That's how many Americans felt when GM et. al. moved production to Canada so they started buying e.g. Toyotas made in e.g. Indiana instead.
You are correct that people will vote with their wallet. To me it makes sense for Canadians to buy from one of the major Canadian automobile manufacturers, and not just for tariff reasons.
Re: (Score:2)
> ...and not just for tariff reasons.
Definitely. The repeated demands that they give up their sovereignty are a pretty good motivator too.
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What major Canadian automobile manufacturers are these? I don't know of any currently, other than a couple of very niche specialty companies.
Personally I'd like to see Canada reduce tariffs just a little bit on Chinese automobiles. Even 50% would probably be reasonable. Also Canada really needs to change the safety regs to allow cars that meet European safety rules (arguably stricter than ours in many cases) into Canada. Right now silly things keep them out because we've tried for so many years to keep r
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I'm also Canadian and have no interest in a BEV. Government pushing them makes me want one even less.
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At some point economics win over politics. I live in a rural area of Alberta and I'm very much interested in BEVs. Of course part of that is because I've made a major investment in solar, and I could easily charge up a BEV with my excess solar power for "free." Of course most people won't be in this position. My neighbor who farms drives mostly EVs now. Ideal for on-farm use as a gasoline engine putting around the farm is lucky to get 10 mpg. Weight is a big downside to EVs, at least on the farm drivi
Re: (Score:1)
I find it hilarious how many people think "I like this thing, so everyone else must like it too". It's great people love their EVs, good for them. I really don't care what other people drive, and government (any government of any party) are the very last people I trust for pretty much anything. If government is butting into your life, it is absolutely never because they have your best interests in mind.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm an American, and my next car is still going to be an EV... and almost certainly one made by a non-American company.
Because American cars are sucking again, just like the old days.
Probably not a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Supposedly EV sales are likely to be 25% higher than last year: [1]https://about.bnef.com/insight... [bnef.com]
Tesla, sure, is facing (self inflicted) problems, but they're no longer the only EV maker in town with any degree of respect. And of course there's now serious efforts being made to produce low cost EVs that will appeal to Americans such as the $20,000 truck that's been mentioned a few times here.
Plus... if we're looking at something that seriously affects the economy of Southern states, it doesn't matter how much culture war bullshit Trump spews, the Republicans will make sure there's support of some kind, even if it's the usual "lessening regulations" crap that doesn't really help anyone long term.
And then there's the question of whether EVs are the only audience for large batteries anyway. As someone living in Florida, I'd love a 5 day battery back-up for my house. Tesla's PowerWalls alas are too expensive for that, but more battery factories should result in the price coming down.
[1] https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/global-electric-vehicle-sales-set-for-record-breaking-year-even-as-us-market-slows-sharply-bloombergnef-finds/
Re: (Score:3)
I wish I had mod points to mod your post UP since you seem to be the only rational poster so far in this thread.
The rest of the posters in this thread are either " off their meds " or they are behaving like somebody killed their goldfish.
Re: (Score:2)
while Teslas are still the most common EVs I see in the quite large metro area where i live, the competition has been growing QUICKLY in the past year.
when i moved into this area at the start of CoVID, it was easily 20-1 in Tesla's favor.
now it's more like 5-1 or worse
Re: (Score:3)
> Supposedly EV sales are likely to be 25% higher than last year: [1]https://about.bnef.com/insight [bnef.com]... [bnef.com]
That is world wide. Not sure that matters much to battery manufacturers in the United States. China is demonstrating that electric car adoption isn't really a problem when you produce affordable electric cars. Electric cars are almost all luxury models in the US. At least based on their price.
We have tax breaks for people to buy electric cars, but with depreciation at 15% to 35% in the first year for any new car, that incentive isn't really that big relative to the extra cost of buying a car new. If we fo
[1] https://about.bnef.com/insight
Late Stage capitalism (Score:2)
Sorry, but america has reached terminal stages of neoliberalism. One short burst of funding is not enough to start up an entire industry. You need continuous, long term political action if you want to accomplish it. No one is gonna risk investing in America when every 4 years we bounce between the silly bourgeois parties and their preferred fiefdom industries.
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Investment in batteries is literally investing in energy, same as oil or gas or wind or anything else, this shouldn't be a political fiefdom more than one group wants to make it one because it can be a divisive wedge issue.
Seriously, there is only political reasoning for conservatives to have been so against renewable energy production especially in terms of developing it as a domestic industry, in every other aspect it makes sense. It's pre craven politicking and it caused us as a nation to drop the ball
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It's established interests, as usual. Oil producers, automotive manufacturers who invested heavily in combustion engines, gas producers, fossil fuel electricity plants, nuclear plants.
Battery electric vehicles and grid scale battery storage all harm their businesses, and boost their rivals.
I'm guessing they don't just create demand by building their own grid scale batteries because the grid operators, who also happen to be the fossil/nuclear operators, have some excuse as to why they can't add storage right
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"Ironically Communist China has a more free market..."
Because it is no longer Communist, except for the slur.
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> Because it is no longer Communist, except for the slur.
You mean except for their name? They call themselves communists so it is hardly a slur to call them what they call themselves.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Communist_Party
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Republicans like things that are profitable. Like oil industry profitable. There is nothing in the green industry that is oil industry profitable.
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> Investment in batteries is literally investing in energy
No, that's obviously not true. Batteries store energy, they don't produce it. And yes, preservation of energy principal means nothing produces energy. But batteries have to be charged with energy, oil, wind and solar got theirs from the sun.
> It's pre craven politicking and it caused us as a nation to drop the ball on it pretty hard.
The reality is that marketing new electric cars as a way to reduce emissions is greenwashing. Buying a new electric car adds one more source of emissions with no offset anywhere. Their only saving grace is they add fewer emissions than someone buying a new ICE vehicle.
Fool and his money soon parted (Score:2)
Film at 11.
The cost is bigger than the EV industry (Score:2)
If investors think the next White House Party Change (WHPC)[TM) MAY make their investment worthless, they will be much less likely to invest unless they can get paid back before the next Presidential election.
Make me an offer (Score:3)
I'd like to buy about 60KWh of batteries soon.
Not for a car, but for a home.
Many folks are likely in the same boat, so why not address a huge market demand?
"Solar is great but batteries are too expensive" is something you'll hear all day long.
Bonus: It's cheaper to ship from North Carolina than from China.
Re: (Score:2)
The batteries you would make for a car may not be appropriate for your home and vice versa. Depending on how much space you have for batteries, you might prefer sodium batteries for longer life and lower cost.
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Currently, LiFePO4 battery technology works well enough and for long enough for home storage. And since it's the same technology that EVs use, these plants certainly can target that market.
Government policy - subject to change (Score:1)
If government policy is the only reason an investment is profitable and no economic reason for it exists outside of that policy, then that investment is in trouble when the policy changes.
I thought that was self-evident?
Build affordable EVs (Score:3)
The cost of a typical EV is way too expensive (beyond stupid actually). Years ago we were told EVs would cost less because of fewer moving parts and simpler manufacturing techniques. The opposite has panned out. Now we have cell phones on wheels with so much DRM, spying, "self driving" BS, anti-repair parts pairing, and sensors causing even the slightest fender bender to cost thousands of dollars. Why not a simple car without all of this (yes knobs instead of a big stupid iPad) that is affordable? Something like an electrified Pontiac Vibe (a Toyota Matrix in disguise) would be an ideal electric car. The average person doesn't want ludicrous speed, 600HP, or a 350 mile range for a typical daily driver. I would use an electric if I could for 90% of my daily around town and back and forth to work driving. If I need to go on a long distance trip then my ICE will do. Gradually introduce the EV until the infrastructure for charging them catches up. There is nothing wrong with ICE and EV coexisting until the changeover has been completed. But at today's EV prices that isn't an option for a vast majority of people. Right to repair also needs to be passed at a federal level to stop the manufacturer fuckery too, but that's another topic.
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> There is nothing wrong with ICE and EV coexisting until the changeover has been completed.
You are assuming that people have enough money to own two fairly new vehicles.
Re:Build affordable EVs (Score:4, Insightful)
Most people already have an ICE. Adding an EV to the stable is extremely cost prohibitive if you wish to keep the current ICE. An affordable EV for daily driving is needed to allow people to experience the benefits the EV offers. Something they can charge overnight on a 110VAC or 220VAC outlet they already have to top the battery off. You know, a sane EV, 0 to 60 in 8 to 10 seconds, 125HP to 150HP, none of the self driving BS beyond cruise control and separation. KNOBS and DIALS. You know, a true daily driver, not a rented (no, you don't truly own it, read the TOS) mother ship connected spying cell phone on wheels that's constantly allowing the manufacturer to suck you dry.
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> You are assuming that people have enough money to own two fairly new vehicles.
Or even WANT two vehicles.
Or have a place to PARK two vehicles.
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A vast majority of people live out in the boonies (like me in northern Ohio) and already have two (or more) ICE vehicles. Lots of people want, and need, two vehicles at their disposal. I can see those living in cities only having the room for one car. Wouldn't it be nice to have some affordable sane EVs to choose from?
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> A vast majority of people live out in the boonies (like me in northern Ohio) and already have two (or more) ICE vehicles.
Right. So they don't need to add to their collection an expensive, over-priced vehicle with limited range.
> Wouldn't it be nice to have some affordable sane EVs to choose from?
There will never be an EV as affordable as the paid for vehicle that I already have, let alone an affordable EV that could substitute for the vehicle I already have.
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> There is nothing wrong with ICE and EV coexisting until the changeover has been completed.
I agree. Many households in the USA have more than one vehicle, and the different drivers in that household are likely to have different driving needs. As an example my brother drives a large truck as he often moves a lot of tools and materials, and has a fairly regular need to pull a trailer. His wife mostly just drives to and from work a short distance from home and so drives a BEV.
For those that might not need multiple vehicles but would like the advantages of driving on all electric power for short t
The WaPo going all MAGAt (Score:3)
Hardly unexpected, when its owner is a spineless coward. Anyway, the main premise of the article - to wit, that sales of EV are in a slump - is a complete falsehood. As befits a newspaper owned by such a lowlife. What is in a slump is the sales of Tesla EVs - an altogether different proposition. EVs by other manufacturers are selling well world over. Not in Dumbfuckistan, for obvious reasons.
Don't read the lies (Score:4, Insightful)
First quarter of 2025 saw an [1]increase in EV market share in the US, again [coxautoinc.com], [2]inertia remains perfectly stable [open-ev-charts.org]. Just like an ever increasing amount of "news" in the US, there's some narrative scrambling for clicks rather than facts. US news is starting to push beyond political driven narratives straight into "lying because it's more profitable and we need marketshare".
[1] https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q1-2025-ev-sales/
[2] https://open-ev-charts.org/#electric-ratio:12-month-avg
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> Just like an ever increasing amount of "news" in the US, there's some narrative scrambling for clicks rather than facts. US news is starting to push beyond political driven narratives straight into "lying because it's more profitable and we need marketshare".
Directly blame Google for that situation. They're the one who have been aggressively pushing the ad-revenue model. Back before Google, media was supported by a mixture of advertising and subscription. We even had a few media sources that were truly independent and both government-backed, and privately supported by individual subscriptions and contributions. Google poisoned the well, and we are all paying the price.
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> US news is starting to push beyond political driven narratives straight into "lying because it's more profitable and we need marketshare".
We have been there for a while. Profit was always the motive. What has really changed is that the content is no longer important. Its only the quality of the clickbait headline. The content of the story doesn't even have to be very closely related.
Nuclear is better than storage (Score:2)
Keep telling me how this is cheaper and more economical than a nuclear power plant.
Re: (Score:1)
> Keep telling me how this is cheaper and more economical than a nuclear power plant.
I can't yet, because the cost of dealing with long-term nuclear waste isn't well-defined.
If the cost turns out to be "leave it at the plant forever and make laws so nobody can sue before something really bad happens and get lucky (nothing bad actually happens in the lifetime of any investors)" then yeah, nuke plants can be relatively cheap.
But right now, it's a big question mark. Investors don't like big question marks.
US is failing/falling to the back of the pack (Score:2)
EV sales are stagnant or falling in the US while they are rapidly rising in the rest of the world.
Main factors are the BBB eliminating all tax incentives and even adding a new EV tax. Of course, there is the usual FUD about EVs which the ignorant seem to fall for easily.
Another sign that the US is falling behind. Tariffs, economic isolationism, and general Idiocracy.
We are already last (of "developed" countries) in health and education. We're now headed to be last in everything...
Re: (Score:2)
> ... and even adding a new EV tax.
If EVs are getting taxed then consider that a good thing. Doesn't the philosophy on the economy go something like... If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
EVs have moved beyond the "subsidize it" stage as it has kept moving. I don't know how long people expected EVs to be subsidized. If they got what they wanted, every vehicle is electric, then at some point the government is simply subsidizing car ownership. If there is a parallel goal of convincing m
Finally we caught up to Jiiihna on something (Score:1)
...then the Orange Hemorrhoid pisses all over it.
Jevons Paradox (Score:2)
is still waiting for that cheap solid state battery.
Re: Republicans (Score:3, Informative)
Because they're part of the far left woke climate conspiracy. Or something.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Jesus didn't have an EV, now did he?
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He didn't have a jet gifted to him from the Qatari royal family either.
Re: (Score:2)
> The tax incentives are freaking obnoxious.
You probably could have started and ended there. I doubt any Republican would care either way about EVs if it weren't for the government subsidies. That includes subsidies on any EV chargers.
If the BEV, or even PHEV, where clearly the better product than the ICEV as we know them today then there's not likely to be any hate for EVs. Why would they? Republicans would likely be buying them up as much as Democrats. With Tesla being an American company I'd expect Republicans to drive them out of national pr
Re: (Score:2)
> It's that IC cars are scheduled to be banned within the next few years. Lots of people know that EVs don't work for their own situation, like, the person lives in an apartment and has no easy way to charge.
That's why most forward-looking states have passed laws requiring new apartments to have adequate charging spaces.
> Insurance rates have gone waaaay up in no small part due to liabiity claims from EVs. EVs are pretty much disposable.
Not really. EVs are actually slightly [1]less likely to be totaled in a wreck [autobodynews.com] than ICE cars, and because they're more likely to have advanced driving assistance features, they're also less likely to get in a wreck in the first place, assuming all else is equal, ignoring minor parking lot mishaps, which are largely vehicle-agnostic.
Repairs can be more expensive, however, and that, coupled with the
[1] https://www.autobodynews.com/news/evs-totaled-at-lower-rate-than-ice-vehicles#:~:text=In%20the%20U.S.%20and%20Canada,8.49%25%20for%20all%20ICE%20vehicles.
Re:Republicans (Score:4, Insightful)
> Why do they hate EVs so much?
Because the Democrats like EVs. The Republican Party stands for one thing, and one thing alone, these days: to oppose anything and everything that the Democrats like. The MAGAt crowd takes this to its ultimate consequences: the only thing that matters to them is that the liberals suffer, even if in order to achieve that the MAGAts themselves must suffer.
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Because in politics, hate and fear sells. If EV's did not exist one would need something else to make people afraid of, or to hate.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Because EVs suck, for a lot of use cases.
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They totally suck for driving from bumfuck nowhere to the nearest Costco, for example.
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Was it Republicans setting Tesla cars on fire?
Re: (Score:2)
Because their donors own all the dino juice and they want to sell as much of it as they can before China achieves energy independence and the rest of the world rides their coat tails.