Australian EV company has secured $349m from US President Joe Biden
A Melbourne-based company has received a massive financial boost as part of Joe Biden’s ambitious electric vehicles target.
National
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An Australian company has secured a $349m injection from the White House to quadruple the size of its US operation that will produce a critical component of electric vehicle batteries.
Syrah Resources, based in Melbourne, received the massive boost as part of a $4.4bn package announced by US President Joe Biden to help manufacture millions of batteries for electric cars.
It follows another $162m loan from the US Department of Energy in July for Syrah’s Louisiana factory, which will make graphite-based active anode material for lithium-ion batteries.
The White House said the US was currently 100 per cent reliant on China for the important material, with Syrah’s Vidalia facility to be the first of its kind in the United States.
It is due to be producing 11,250 metric tons of active anode material from late next year.
The new project, for which Syrah will split the costs 50-50 with the US government, will expand that capacity to at least 45,000 metric tons per year.
By 2026, the US is expected to need more than 500,000 metric tons of active anode material every year to help meet President Biden’s ambitious target for electric vehicles to make up half of all new vehicles sold in 2030.
About 120 jobs are expected to come from Syrah’s expansion project, on top of 101 jobs from the initial stage of the facility.
Syrah managing director Shaun Verner said the grant highlighted “the strategic importance of our integrated operations, and our active anode material facility”.
Overall, Mr Biden’s $4.4bn investment is expected to develop enough lithium for two million electric vehicle batteries a year, graphite for 1.2 million batteries and nickel for 400,000 batteries.
US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said it would “supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made”.
“Producing advanced batteries and components here at home will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to meet the strong demand for electric vehicles, creating more good-paying jobs across the country,” she said.
A senior White House official added: “As the world transitions from a fossil fuel to a clean energy-powered economy, we cannot trade dependence on oil from autocrats like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to dependence on critical minerals from China.”
News Corp revealed earlier this month that Jervois, which is also based in Australia, was opening America’s only cobalt mine to break China’s stranglehold on another vital material for the electric vehicle revolution.
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Originally published as Australian EV company has secured $349m from US President Joe Biden
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