ENTEK just got a conditional $1.2 billion loan from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office to build a lithium-ion battery separator factory in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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Indiana has been slow to install electric car chargers, but the Hoosier State is now going to give eight electric utilities, including Duke Energy, NIPSCO, and AES Indiana, more than $5.5 million to set up 61 EV fast charging stations. The money will come from the Volkswagen settlement over its Clean Air Act violations.
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Tensions between US automakers GM and Tesla are now at an all time high. GM took a few swipes at Tesla at the unveiling of the 200 mile range Chevy Bolt earlier this year. The automaker published a promotional picture of the new all-electric car in front of Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto and CEO Mary Barra made the following comment during the CES launch:
“Unlike some EV customers, Bolt EV customers never have to worry about driving to another state to buy, service or support their vehicles.”
She is clearly making reference to the fact that Tesla is somehow still blocked from selling vehicles in certain states due to laws banning direct sales from manufacturers which force them to go through third-party dealerships. These laws are often from the 1950s when the US automakers would exert monopolistic control over the dealer relationships. Tesla General Counsel Todd Maron went before the FTC to argue against these direct sales bans and directly called out Barra for her comment (see picture above), which becomes more relevant than ever now that we learn that GM has authored a new bill to ban direct sales in Indiana.
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