Feds give $500M to Lansing GM auto plant to switch to EVs

• General Motors Corps. Is set to receive $500 million to retool a Lansing assembly plant amid the EV shift.
• Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm used the announcement to defend President Joe Biden’s track record amid calls for him to step down.
• Local officials calls news that the plant will stay open a relief.

LANSING — A General Motors Corp. factory here will receive $500 million in federal funds to help retool to build electric vehicles, the latest in a surge of spending to help  Michigan factories transition from combustion engines.

Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. secretary of energy and Michigan’s former governor, was back in town Thursday to announce the funding on the factory floor of the GM Grand River Assembly Plant and say the U.S. is committed to keeping auto jobs.

She announced 11 factories in eight states will receive a total of $1.7 billion in grants to retool facilities that otherwise would have closed, as automakers swap gas-only vehicles for hybrids and EVs.

Granholm used the event to bolster President Joe Biden as he weathers mounting calls to cease his campaign for re-election following a lackluster debate performance two weeks ago.

“I come bearing a message from Joe Biden,” Granholm told the crowd of public officials, union reps and workers gathered in the plant. “This factory will stay open. And your jobs will remain right here in Lansing, Michigan.”

“You have a president who cares about this,” she added.

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The funding is the latest in a series of state and federal subsidies promised to GM to keep its plants in Michigan’s auto towns amid the transition to EVs.

In 2022, Michigan awarded GM and partner LG Energy Solution $344 million in subsidies to build the joint-venture Ultium Cells battery plant just outside Lansing. 

The companies also received part of a $2.5 billion federal loan and will be eligible for a state tax break on their equipment 

Federal officials estimate Thursday’s grant will help retain more than 650 jobs and create 50 at the Grand River plant, which assembles Cadillac CT4 and CT5s.

Across all 11 facilities, federal officials estimate the funding will preserve more than 15,000 jobs while creating 2,900 new ones. 

Elsewhere in Michigan, a ZF North America, Inc. plant in Marysville will receive $157.7 million to retool part of its facility for EV components production. 

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said the funding assuring the Lansing GM plant’s role in the EV future is a “relief.”

Lansing weathered a series of plant closures and downsizings in the mid-2000s as the auto sector shrank. 

Recently, Lansing was among a host of auto towns bracing for more bad news as automakers announced plans to build EV battery plants in other states such as Tennessee.

“With Grand River, we’ve always had some concerns,” Schor said. But after GM and LG announced the Ultium plant just a few miles down the road, hopes surged for the future of Lansing’s assembly lines.

“Batteries are heavy,” Schor said. “Nobody wants to have to ship that all over the country.”

The new funding follows federal pollution control mandates that are expected to result in more than half of all U.S. vehicle sales being EVs by 2032. But amid a slowdown in EV market growth, automakers have re-emphasized hybrids as a bridge vehicle.

A GM spokesperson said the company does not yet have a timeline for retooling the Lansing plant or what it might assemble.

GM would be required to put in $900 million of its own money to get the $500 million grant from the federal government. Funding specifics are still being negotiated.