The US Department of Energy is awarding a $2.5 billion loan to Ultium Cells LLC for three lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plants in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan, Kallanish reports.

The company is a joint venture between US-based General Motors and South Korea-based LG Energy Solution. The projects are expected to create 11,000 jobs: 6,000 in construction and 5,100 in operations. The project is also expected to reduce US reliance on other countries for electric vehicle batter technologies, the DOE says.

“DOE is flooring the accelerator to build the electric vehicle supply chain here at home, and that starts with domestic battery manufacturing led by American workers and the unions that support them,” says Energy Secretary Jenifer Granholm in a statement.

Workers at the Ultium Cell plant in Warren, Ohio, have voted to be represented by the United Auto Workers union. That announcement came last week. Ohio production began last August.

Last July, the DOE’s Loan Programs Office had announced a conditional approval for the loan to Ultium Cells to manufacture large format, pouch-type cells that use a state-of-the-art nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminium chemistry to deliver more range at less cost. Those cells can be arranged in different combinations to provide clean, reliable energy for all vehicles.

The loan came from the DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing programme and is the first loan for a battery cell manufacturing project. DOE is reviewing 98 LPO applications seeking more than $104 billion in loans and loan guarantees.

Ultium Cells is looking at a fourth battery cell manufacturing plant, perhaps in Indiana. An announcement is expected soon.