11.29.23

Moses Lake EV Battery Plant Supported by Cantwell-Championed Grant Program Breaks Ground

Sila plans to hire up to 500+ employees at the Moses Lake plant over the next five-years & will partner with Big Bend CC and Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) celebrated the groundbreaking of a new EV battery manufacturing plant in Moses Lake. Ahead of today’s ceremony, Senator Cantwell said the following:

“Today we celebrate a win for Moses Lake, for the environment, and for helping make cars cleaner and more affordable … Sila [is] leading the way towards a cleaner energy future, a future that will create thousands of well-paying local jobs, advance domestic manufacturing, and protect our national security by reducing the need to import critical minerals. These are exactly the goals Congress had in mind when we passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.”

A full recording of Sen. Cantwell’s video remarks is available HERE, and transcript HERE.

Over the next five years, Sila plans to create more than 500 full time jobs and will invest hundreds of millions of dollars to expand production at the Moses Lake plant. Sila will also partner with Big Bend Community College and Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center to prepare students for entry-level technical and operations positions at the plant. In October, Sila appointed Moses Lake native Rosendo Alvarado as Plant Manager.

Sila’s Moses Lake plant will produce anodes made partially or fully from silicon, a globally available commodity, rather than graphite, which is used in most car batteries manufactured today. China, the world’s top producer of graphite, and currently the source for a third of U.S. graphite imports, just announced plans to restrict exports of the critical mineral. Sila is the first manufacturer of this advanced battery material to sign a supply agreement with an auto manufacturer. Their silicone anode will be used in the batteries for the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G-class series.

Sen. Cantwell helped secure a $100 million grant for Sila from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Battery Materials Processing and Battery Component Manufacturing & Recycling program, which she championed in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Sila, based in Alameda, CA, will invest over $500 million of their own money, along with the $100 million from DOE, to build out their 600,000-square-foot Moses Lake facility. The new factory will produce enough materials to power 200,000 electric vehicles during the facility’s first phase, making Sila’s plant the largest silicon anode production facility in the world.

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