- Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina requested that the Trump administration release funds for the retooling of a Mercedes-Benz electric van plant.
- The plant is located in her constituency near Charleston and supports hundreds of well-paying manufacturing jobs, boosting the local economy.
- The Biden administration awarded $1.8 billion for the retooling of old and at-risk auto factories.
Republicans may not be the champions of electric vehicles, but some of them are asking to protect EV manufacturing jobs in their backyards as President Donald Trump's budget bill seeks to cut green incentives.
The latest example comes from Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who privately asked Trump to unblock federal funds worth $285 million for the retooling of a Mercedes-Benz van assembly plant in Ladson, South Carolina, according to a letter seen by The Washington Post.
The Biden administration awarded $1.8 billion to support the conversion of 13 shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly plants in 10 U.S. states. That was done under the Inflation Reduction Act's Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program.
“Congresswoman Mace has always raised concerns about reckless federal spending," Sydney Long, Mace's spokesperson, said in a statement. "But once the money is out the door, she’s always fought to bring jobs and investment home to South Carolina," she added. "We believe that federal investments should continue to prioritize projects with sustained economic growth."
The plant already supports about 2,300 direct and indirect jobs, according to Mercedes-Benz. An additional 800 jobs are reportedly tied to the $285 million grant to support the manufacturing of a new light-duty electric van prototype, as per the report.
That's likely a new model based on the automaker's VAN.EA platform that's expected to go on sale next year.
The federal grant would attract additional investment in the region, Mace reportedly said in the letter. A similar pattern is seen in Georgia, another state with billions of dollars worth of EV manufacturing plants, where $1 of federal investment attracted over $4.50 of private investment as well.
Mace's letter comes as the Trump administration attempts to dismantle the Biden-era clean energy push. The Senate spending bill, if passed, will end the federal tax credits for consumers and also throw out the grants for EV and battery manufacturing, 85% of which are located in Republican states and are linked to tens of thousands of well-paying American jobs.
The plant, called Mercedes-Benz Vans Charleston, manufactures the Sprinter and eSprinter vans for the U.S. and Canadian markets. The automaker sold nearly 50,000 units of the Sprinter in the U.S. last year, of which only 828 were the eSprinter vans, with the rest being the gas-powered versions.
According to the Department of Energy website, the funds for retooling had already been awarded and were "out the door," so it's unclear why they remain frozen. Mercedes-Benz did not immediately respond to InsideEVs' request for comment at the time of publication.
The letter, led by Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican from Virginia, also critiques the spending bill for causing a “significant disruption" to clean energy projects. “While we were proud to have worked to ensure that the bill did not include a full repeal of the clean energy tax credits, we remain deeply concerned by several provisions,” the letter states.
The IRA grants for the retooling of at-risk factories were also awarded to a dozen other companies, including $500 million to General Motors for the EV conversion of its Lansing, Michigan facility, $200 million to Volvo for the manufacturing of electric freight trucks in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, and nearly $600 million to Stellantis for its plants in Belvidere, Illinois and Kokomo, Indiana.
Have a tip? Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com
