The construction of KORE Power‘s EV battery factory in Arizona is now fast-tracked with a US Department of Energy loan for $850 million.
The money will go toward paying for the fabrication of KOREPlex, the company’s battery cell factory in Buckeye, Arizona (site pictured above and rendering below). The factory already had private financing in place, such as an initial $75 million tranche from Siemens Financial Services and network infrastructure firm Quanta Services, but the DOE injection is going to accelerate buildout.
The 1.33 million-square-foot KOREPlex will feature multiple production lines to make batteries for EVs and battery storage systems in the US. The factory will produce nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium-ion iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.
The construction of KOREPlex, which began civil works late in 2022, is expected to create 1,250 direct jobs when operating at capacity. KORE is working with Arizona colleges and universities to create job training programs for those roles.
KOREPlex will have an annual production capacity of 6 GWh of EV and energy storage battery cells, and it has the capability of further increasing annual domestic production based on demand for lithium-ion batteries.
The facility is expected to begin to deliver batteries by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
KORE Power president Jay Bellows told Electrek:
Americans want the pride of driving electric vehicles powered by US-made batteries.
Manufacturers want confidence that their supply will be available and delivered on time. Today’s news brings us another big step closer to that becoming reality.
The DOE’s Loan Programs Office awarded the conditional funds under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan program.
Read more: The first wholly US-owned li-ion battery factory is going to be smart
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