U.S. EV Battery Manufacturing Is on Track to Meet Demand

WASHINGTON—A recent analysis claims that the United States has enough planned battery production capacity to supply all the electric vehicles expected to be sold in 2030.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), more than 1,000 gigawatt hours per year of EV battery production capacity has already been announced to come online by 2028. That’s the equivalent of what is needed to power 10 million electric cars.

All of the announced battery manufacturing activity is domestic, which indicates that the U.S. is poised to supply its own battery needs. States with the most announced battery production capacity include Michigan (140 gigawatt hours per year), Georgia (136 gigawatt hours), Tennessee (128 gigawatt hours), Kentucky (119 gigawatt hours) and Indiana (97 gigawatt hours).

“This analysis adds to the large body of evidence already supporting the unambiguous feasibility of protective EPA vehicle emission standards for both light-and-medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles,” says Ellen Robo, EDF’s manager of transportation and clean air policy.

The analysis evaluates battery demand that could result if manufacturers choose to sell battery electric vehicles to meet both EPA’s Multi-Pollutant Emission Standards for Light and Medium-Duty Vehicles and EPA’s Phase 3 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles.

More than 40 battery manufacturing facilities have been announced already, with an average production capacity of 23 gigawatt hours per year. The average time between announcement and expected start of production for the facilities 2.7 years.

Robo says that means additional facilities that would come online after 2026 have not yet been announced. It also means manufacturers can respond to additional demand for batteries in a relatively short time frame.

Roughly 90 percent of battery demand is expected to come from passenger vehicles, although demand for electric buses and trucks is also growing. Electric vehicles reached 12 percent of all vehicles produced for sale in the U.S. in 2023, an increase of 70 percent over the year before.

Austin has been senior editor for ASSEMBLY Magazine since September 1999. He has more than 21 years of b-to-b publishing experience and has written about a wide variety of manufacturing and engineering topics. Austin is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

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