With strong policy support, the U.S. can become a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing and deployment as well as electric transportation. The DRIVE Clean scenario requires that annual U.S. electric light-duty vehicle sales grow from 331,000 today, to over 15 million by 2030. Domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles is ramping up, with significant investments from major manufacturers. There are currently more than 125 zero-emission medium-duty vehicles and heavy-duty trucks in production or development. Global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity, a core component of electric vehicle production, will exceed 2,000 GWh by the late 2020s, enough to support the necessary battery capacity envisioned in the DRIVE Clean scenario. With strong policies in the near term, the U.S. can become a global leader in electric transportation.
EV manufacturing capacity in the United States is already expanding rapidly. Domestic manufacturers have announced plans to spend at least $30 billion in EV manufacturing and development. Conversion of existing vehicle lines to EV production can occur more quickly than greenfield manufacturing development. For example, Tesla purchased a closed vehicle manufacturing plant in Fremont, California in 2010 and produced its first vehicle just 2 years later. In 2020, it produced 500,000 EVs with 10,000 employees. The Lordstown Motor Corporation recently purchased a closed auto factory in Ohio and will produce its first electric commercial pickup truck this year, with production of 50,000 vehicles projected for 2022; the site can be scaled to produce 600,000 vehicles per year.
Other domestic car manufacturers have also announced aggressive plans to expand EV production. General Motors plans to spend $27 billion to manufacture 30 electric models by 2025, and it expects to phase out ICE vehicles entirely by 2035. Ford announced in February 2021 that all its new cars sold in Europe, some of which will be manufactured in the U.S., will be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2026 and fully electric 4 years later, and that two-thirds of its commercial vehicles will also be all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030. American carmaker Lucid will release an electric luxury sedan with a 500-mile range in late 2021, while Rivian is already producing electric vans in Illinois so it can deliver 100,000 vehicles to Amazon.
