Volkswagen has announced that it will stop erecting EV battery plants until the European Union (EU) has a counteroffer to the USA's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to the Financial Times (FT), the Volkswagen Group, which is Europe's largest automaker, expects to receive between $9 to $10 billion in subsidies and loans from the US government over the lifecycle of a factory.
The IRA was written with several goals in mind, but those applicable to the automotive industry include cutting the USA's reliance on China for EV battery components, offering incentives to Americans to get rid of their gas guzzlers, and creating more jobs.
A study by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst estimates the act will create more than nine million jobs over the next decade. There's already proof of this, with thousands of new jobs announced shortly after the IRA was signed into law.
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