The Uphill Battle for More Made-in-the-USA EV Batteries

Motor Trend

3 days ago

Despite significant headwinds, including higher costs, public charging hassles, and skeptical consumers, electric vehicle adoption continues to steadily gain ground. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global sales of battery-only electric vehicles reached almost 10.8 million in 2024 compared to 8.7 million the previous year. China led the EV charge with sales surpassing 6.1 million last year compared to 5.1 million in 2023, while U.S. EV sales grew at a more tepid but steady pace—from 1.1 million in 2023 to 1.2 million in 2024.
Automakers aim to boost U.S. EV battery production amidst challenges from China's dominance and uncertain federal support. Despite investments, the U.S. lags in battery capacity, risking reliance on imports. Efforts continue for domestic growth amid policy and market uncertainties.
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China has a decided EV advantage and is continuing to drive the market, not only because the country's car buyers prefer domestically produced and low-cost 'new energy vehicles,' but also because of manufacturing efficiencies and generous government subsidies. It also helps that China has cornered the EV battery manufacturing sector by taking lithium-ion technology originally developed in the U.S and perfecting and scaling it from material supply through to the finished product. This has resulted in an industrywide reliance on Chinese-made EV batteries, leaving the rest of the world to play catch-up.
'China has a huge EV battery production capacity,' Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry said, 'and they've also done a lot to develop the supply chain, even for materials that they don't necessarily mine, like lithium.' Due to this dependence on China for batteries by automakers building EVs in the U.S., there's been a strong drive and significant investment by private industry and more recently via public policy to boost stateside battery production. 'The U.S. is behind,' said Jessica Dunn, who studies clean transportation for Union of Concerned Scientists. 'That's the reason for the recent investments and government tax credits and grants.'
These efforts have put the U.S. on track to produce enough batteries to meet domestic EV production needs. But a hostile approach toward EVs by the new administration and a general slowdown in EV adoption in America is threatening to blunt the momentum necessary to catch up with China's battery production juggernaut. 'We're not just talking about competitiveness and a reliance on imports,' Dunn said, 'but also manufacturing job growth in the U.S.' EV Battery Production Continues to Rise
The race to expand EV battery production has coincided with the big bets the world's leading automakers initially placed on a battery-powered future as they rushed to emulate the phenomenal success of Tesla. Those bets are starting to pay off as the growing global demand for EVs in recent years, especially in China, has resulted in a drop in battery production costs and rapid advancements in battery technology.
According to BloombergNEF's annual battery price survey, the volume-weighted average price for lithium-ion battery packs dropped 20 percent in 2024, to $115 per kilowatt-hour. 'Cell manufacturing overcapacity, economies of scale, low metal and component prices, and the ongoing shift to lower-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries have all contributed to this drop,' said Evelina Stoikou, head of battery technology and supply chain research for BloombergNEF.
Stoikou expects the trends to continue into the next decade as R&D, manufacturing advancements, and growing supply chain capacity should further improve technology and lower overall production costs. But she cautioned that it will be hard to overcome the entrenched advantages China has built in energy and equipment, in addition to its cheaper labor force. Moving Battery Production Stateside
Despite the headwinds, automakers producing and selling EVs here in the U.S. as well as related suppliers have been moving more battery production stateside, often in partnership with Chinese firms. In 2019, there were only two operational battery plants in the U.S. with two under construction. Currently there are more than 30 that are either operating, under construction, or in the planning stages. Examples include: BMW is investing $1.7 billion to build a production facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with $700 million allotted to the development of a battery assembly facility in nearby Woodruff. In addition, BMW partnered with Chinese-majority-owned battery producer Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) to build a plant in Florence, South Carolina, which has recently been put on hold.
Ford is building a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) plant in Michigan to supply batteries and is using production technology licensed from leading Chinese battery maker CATL. Ford also created a joint venture called BlueOval SK in 2021 with South Korean battery maker SK On to build three U.S. battery plants, two in Kentucky and one in Tennessee near a Ford assembly plant. Production at one of the Kentucky plants is scheduled to begin in 2025, but the second one has been put on hold, reportedly due to declining EV demand.
General Motors is planning three U.S. battery plants via a joint venture with LG Energy Solutions to develop LFP battery technology and another with Samsung SDI. GM also plans to build a new battery cell development center in Warren, Michigan, that's scheduled to start production in early 2027 and has partnered with SolidEnergy Systems to build a prototyping facility in Massachusetts to develop a high-capacity lithium-ion battery.
Hyundai and SK On established a joint venture to build a $5 billion battery plant in Georgia, and the automaker and LG Energy Solution formed a partnership to build another battery factory in Georgia to supply 300,000 EVs per year.
Toyota is building a battery plant in North Carolina to produce cells and modules for both hybrids and EVs, with start of production and shipping of batteries for vehicles built in North American planned for 2025. Toyota is also working with South Korea's LG Energy Solution to build batteries in Michigan.
Honda partnered with LG Energy Solution in 2022 to produce lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. at a facility in Jeffersonville, Ohio, as part of its Honda EV Hub, with production to begin by the end of 2025. The initial $3.5 billion investment is projected to reach $4.4 billion overall.
Many of the U.S.-based battery plants rely on federal subsidies in the form of grants, tax credits, and subsidized loans put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2022. More than 80 percent of automaker and supplier investments were announced after the passing of the IRA and BIL, and billions in federal funds and private-sector investment have already been funneled to these projects. But the Trump administration put a hold on the remaining disbursements shortly after taking the reins in D.C., resulting in the cancellation of some projects.
The national nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors E2 estimated that businesses have cancelled or cut more than $14 billion in investments and 10,000 new jobs in clean energy and clean vehicle factories since January, 'amid rising fears over the future of federal clean energy tax credits and policy.' One of these is the aforementioned $1.6 billion plant AESC planned to build in South Carolina to make batteries for BMW EVs, with AESC citing 'policy and market uncertainty' for halting work on the plant.
In addition to the doubt around federal funding, the recent U.S. budget bill not only phases out battery-production tax credits earlier but also makes it more difficult to access raw materials via restrictive sourcing requirements. 'The U.S. introduced steep tariffs on imports, especially on China, to strengthen domestic supply chains, encourage local manufacturing, and limit reliance on Chinese imports,' Stoikou said. 'These tariffs will increase costs for lithium-ion batteries and components in the U.S., as the region heavily relies on imports.'
While Ford cited slow EV sales for driving its decision to postpone the building of one of its two Kentucky battery plants after being set to receive a $9.2 billion federal loan, the automaker recently revealed progress on its BlueOval Battery Park Michigan. The facility in Marshall (about two hours west of Detroit) will produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. 'Our state-of-the-art lithium iron phosphate battery cell production equipment is already operational,' Lisa Drake, vice president of technology platform programs and EV systems at Ford, wrote in recent a blog post.
'This facility represents a historic step: An American automotive company is manufacturing—without relying on a foreign joint venture—LFP battery cells and battery packs domestically with American workers for American-assembled next-generation electric vehicles,' Drake said. 'We remain on track to start production of these prismatic LFP batteries next year.' LFP: A Key Part of Ford's Future EVs
Although Ford isn't relying on a foreign joint-venture partner to produce the batteries, it has encountered political pushback for its dependence on China's battery producer CATL for technical expertise. 'When you look at the capacity for LFP, the vast majority of it is still in China,' Abuelsamid said, 'which is why Ford was buying CATL battery packs for the standard-range Mustang Mach E and why Rivian has been using Gotion batteries for the standard-range version of the R1T.'
Things could have potentially been much different, however, if the U.S. hadn't dropped the LFP ball. Drake wrote to MotorTrend in an email: 'LFP technology was invented here in the U.S. For whatever reason, we didn't commercialize it as a country, as an industry, as an auto sector.' While Ford can develop the expertise to manufacture, design, and engineer LFP production, 'rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars year after year trying to design around a license, we decided we'll license it from them,' she said. 'We spent all our time and effort and speed to build this plant and create American jobs.'
The BlueOval Battery Park plant is a key part of Ford's future EV strategy, with the production capacity allocated to eight EV models in the coming years, according to Abuelsamid. But like many others, the Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan depends in part on government funding that could be in jeopardy. 'A lot of the money to cover the cost was going to come from various programs at either the state or federal level,' Abuelsamid said. 'So, what happens if they kill off this funding?' Enough Batteries for All?
Even without federal funds, Abuelsamid believes the U.S. and Canada should eventually be able to produce enough batteries domestically to power the EVs built in North America. 'I think we're pretty close to being able to support all EV production, at least probably through the next three to five years,' Abuelsamid said.
Dunn of the Union of Concerned Scientists isn't quite as bullish. While she agreed that the buildout of U.S. battery production will likely still happen with the potential to greatly increase America's competitiveness on the global stage, she's concerned that pulling government funding will set the timeline back. Given the complicated supply chain and other factors, she believes that for the time being, automakers with EV production plants here will need to continue to rely on imported battery packs to power their vehicles.
Meanwhile, China remains focused on exporting EVs and EV batteries, which will further lower prices and make it more expensive for the U.S. to produce EV batteries that can compete on cost. 'Battery manufacturers are facing price pressure in large part due to the competitive dynamics caused by massive overcapacity in China and lower EV demand,' Stoikou said. 'These factors have made it harder for players in the U.S. and Europe to compete.'
It's a challenging global landscape, to be sure, one that comes with significant risks. But the rewards could be significant for the automakers and the suppliers who push forward to secure a domestic battery production future—with or without government support.