Electric Trucks In Play As New, Trump-Endorsed Lithium-Ion Battery Factory Takes Shape

A battery maker called Forge Nano is expanding its factory in Morrisville, North Carolina, with backing from a $100 million grant from the Trump administration's Department of Energy. The expanded site is meant to grow from 100,000 square feet to nearly 315,000 square feet, eventually producing up to 3 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion battery cells a year, with production starting in 2028. Forge Nano itself is putting in $300 million to $330 million.

This isn't really about home batteries or electric cars for regular buyers, though. The grant traces back to a 2024 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law program aimed at heavy-duty trucks, off-road equipment, aerospace, and defense uses, not passenger EVs. Most of the output is expected to go toward military applications like drone batteries, radio batteries, and electric military vehicles, timed to new Defense Department battery-sourcing rules starting in 2028. South Korea's Samsung SDI is also involved, supplying cells that will go into automotive uses on the commercial and industrial side, not consumer cars.

For homeowners, the news mainly signals that battery manufacturing in the U.S. keeps growing even as other clean-energy programs face cuts under the current administration, since demand for batteries is being driven by data centers, industrial users, and now defense needs. It doesn't point to any new rebate, tax credit, or home battery product you could use right now, but it's a sign that domestic battery supply chains, which eventually feed into things like home energy storage, are still expanding.