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Ten new battery factories for electric vehicles are on their way to go online this year in the United States.
This includes large plants of Global Battery Giants such as Panasonic, Samsung and SK ON, and car manufacturers such as Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Stellantis and Toyota.
When they all open in 2025, the production of EV battery of the country is ready to grow to 421.5 gigawatt hours per year, an increase of 90 percent compared to the end of 2024, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, in the research agency in The United Kingdom.
But this industry sees some storm clouds. The Trump administration takes steps that would reduce the demand for EVs. And two startups of the battery – Kore Power and Freyr – have again canceled the plans for new American factories.
I don't blame anyone who looks at this landscape and wonders if there will be a battery. But I see a tree that is still in the early stages – although the uncertainty is gained to uncomfortable levels.
This week I spoke with analysts to get an idea of the meaning of growth and also which factors can undermine the success of the new plants. The big unknown is how far the Trump administration can go to change the laws and rules that offer tax stimuli to the factories and the growth of the EV market share support.
Even if the government took action to undo tax credits for the production of batteries, these factories are too far in their development to be canceled, said Evan Hartley, an analyst for battery industry for benchmark.
“They have already been built,” he said. “You can't stop and the momentum is there. And most of them are in Republican states. It is difficult to remove many thousands of jobs that have been promised to your most important voter base. “
So, whether Trump likes it or not, he is about to chair a banner year for the United States as an important player in EV batteries, largely thanks to the policy of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
