LPO Announces $7,54 Billion Loan to StarPlus Energy to Construct Lithium-Ion Battery Factories in Indiana
Starplus Energy will expand EV battery manufacturing and create thousands of jobs in Kokomo, Indiana.
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda
, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced today the closing of a $7.54 billion loan ($6.85 billion in principal and $688 million in capitalized interest) to StarPlus Energy LLC (StarPlus Energy). LPO has been evaluating StarPlus’s application since July 2023. The loan will help finance up to two lithium-ion battery cell and module manufacturing plants in Kokomo, Indiana. The borrower is a joint venture between FCA US LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of Stellantis N.V.) and Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. (Samsung SDI). The output from the new manufacturing facilities will be sold to Stellantis for use in electric vehicle (EV) models that will be sold in North America—helping ensure the United States can meet domestic demand and remain a global leader in the rapidly expanding EV industry.
The project is expected to create approximately 3,200 peak construction jobs, up to 2,800 operations jobs at the plants, and hundreds of additional jobs at a nearby supplier park. Together these jobs will boost the regional economy and add to the nearly 16 million jobs created since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.
At full capacity, the StarPlus project will produce about 67 GWh of batteries, enough to supply approximately 670,000 vehicles annually. The project will greatly expand EV battery manufacturing capacity in North America and reduce America’s reliance on foreign nations like China for sourcing EV batteries.
LPO borrowers are required to develop and ultimately implement a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan (CBP). CBPs ensure borrowers meaningfully engage with community and labor groups to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of the local community and workers. The new StarPlus facilities are being constructed under the National Maintenance Agreement, a national collective bargaining agreement, overseen by the National Maintenance Agreement Policy Committee. The NMA, to which all local building trades unions are signatories, helps to ensure workforce continuity and mitigate project delays.
This investment supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
StarPlus is also partnering with local educational institutions, such as Ivy Tech Kokomo and Purdue Polytech, to ensure local workers have the training required to fill the jobs. StarPlus is also developing Department of Labor-approved electro-mechanical apprenticeships.
This project reinforces President Biden’s Investing in America agenda
to onshore and re-shore domestic manufacturing technologies. The loan is offered through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program, which provides loans to support U.S. manufacturing of advanced technology vehicles, qualifying components, and materials that improve fuel economy. With several recent ATVM projects in the last year, LPO is supporting the development of a strong domestic supply chain for EVs. Through ATVM, LPO provides loans to projects related to fuel-efficient vehicles and eligible component manufacturing in the United States. Recent announcements have spanned the critical mineral and battery supply chains and involved mineral processing, battery manufacturing, and battery recycling.
Across all LPO’s programs, DOE has attracted 212 applications for projects across the country totaling over $324.3 billion in requested loans and loan guarantees, as of November 2024. For more information about StarPlus, read the conditional commitment blog post and visit LPO’s portfolio project page.
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LPO Announces $7,54 Billion Loan to StarPlus Energy to Construct Lithium-Ion Battery Factories in Indiana, source
