$671 Million Loan Offered to Electric Vehicle Battery Component Manufacturer for Georgia Plant Construction

Aspen Aerogels to Build Facility Near Savannah

The Biden administration plans to provide Aspen Aerogels Inc. with a nearly $671 million loan to manufacture critical components of electric vehicle batteries in the battleground state of Georgia.

The U.S. Department of Energy will announce this conditional financing on October 16, which is intended to fund the construction of a new manufacturing plant that produces thermal protection screens to prevent battery fires. This is part of President Biden’s push for establishing an American domestic supply chain for electric vehicles and their required advanced batteries.

“We are ensuring that the production portion of the supply chain happens in this country,” said Jigar Shah, director of the Energy Department’s loan programs office, in an interview. “We take onshoring the entire supply chain very seriously.”

Although rare, lithium-ion battery cells can overheat and cause adjacent cells to do the same, eventually leading to a fire. Based in Massachusetts, Aspen has contracts with General Motors Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, and other automakers to supply its thermal protection screens. This new facility will be located in Register near Savannah and is expected to produce enough thermal protection screens for more than 2 million electric vehicles annually.

CEO Donald Young stated that Aspen has invested $300 million into this approximately $1 billion facility, with plans to complete construction by the end of 2026 or early 2027. Young noted that funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program is crucial for a relatively small and rapidly growing company like Aspen.

“Without support from the LPO program, we can hardly imagine how to complete this kind of investment,” Young said in an interview. “Securing capital at this level is challenging for us.”

Source: Transport Topics