DOD Goes Green: Eight years to transition to 50% electric vehicles
Section 1. Policy. America must lead the world on clean and efficient cars and trucks. That means bolstering our domestic market by setting a goal that 50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles. Biden
Ford, GM and Stellantis announce their shared aspiration to achieve sales of 40-50% of annual U.S. volumes of electric vehicles (battery electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles) by 2030 in order to move the nation closer to a zero-emissions future consistent with Paris climate goals. Our recent product, technology, and investment announcements highlight our collective commitment to be leaders in the U.S. transition to electric vehicles. This represents a dramatic shift from the U.S. market today that can be achieved only with the timely deployment of the full suite of electrification policies committed to by the Administration in the Build Back Better Plan, including purchase incentives, a comprehensive charging network of sufficient density to support the millions of vehicles these targets represent, investments in R&D, and incentives to expand the electric vehicle manufacturing and supply chains in the United States.
The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $35 million contract to MP Materials Corp. (MP) of Las Vegas, Nevada to design and build a facility to process heavy rare earth elements (HREE) at the company’s Mountain Pass, California production site. This project will establish the first processing and separation facility of its kind for HREEs in support of both defense and commercial applications in the United States.
This award is part of DoD’s rare earth supply chain resiliency efforts, and directly supports the administration’s initiatives to strengthen America’s supply chains as outlined in Executive Order 14017, America’s Supply Chains. To date, DoD has invested over $100M in enhancing America’s rare earth supply chain resiliency as part of its commitments to expanding domestic rare earth element processing capabilities and capacity.
MP Materials mission statement:
MP Materials owns and operates Mountain Pass,
the only Rare Earth mining and processing site in North America
The green technologies of the future—electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, and more—depend on powerful rare earth magnets to turn energy into motion. Without the consistent and trusted supply provided by MP Materials, the entire supply chain for critical magnetic materials has shifted to Asia, primarily China. MP Materials serves as the beachhead for a renaissance in domestic manufacturing. It starts with us.
- The trend towards electrification is driving rapid demand growth for NdPr—for example, electric vehicles consume ~5% of annual NdPr production today, but may consume ~100% of current annual production by 2035.
- Without our consciously-mined materials, not only will the future growth of “green” technologies depend on highly-pollutant supply from China and greater Australasia, but our advanced R&D and manufacturing will continue to follow that supply overseas.
- MP Materials is restoring the U.S.’s resource independence—removing the single point-of-failure in our industrial supply chain and ensuring that the U.S. has a seat at the table in driving the automotive, aerospace, wind-power, and IT technologies of the future.
This investment funds a commercial-scale operation designed, constructed, and operated by MP Materials at Mountain Pass. This facility will deploy new domestic HREE separation and processing technologies to enable integration of HREE products into DoD and civilian applications, ensuring downstream HREE industries have access to a reliable feedstock supplier. Additionally, this award requires MP to find innovative solutions to bring HREE production costs on par with the international market within five years of the first production batch.
“HREEs are fundamental building blocks of the modern economy, enabling trillions of dollars in global economic development via a wide range of clean energy, information technology, defense, and industrial applications,” said Andrew Hunter, who is performing the duties of Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. “This effort will enable new domestic industrial capacity, to improve supply chain resilience and to operationalize the policies in Executive Order 14017 on America’s Supply Chains.”
This project operates under a public-private partnership, bringing together industry innovation leaders such as MP Materials with technology materials companies at home and abroad.
MP Materials Chairman and CEO, James Litinsky, stated, “This project will enable products that depend on heavy rare earths to be readily served by a U.S. supply chain. MP Materials’ domestic processing capabilities will reduce commercialization risk and improve America’s economic and national security.”
“The primary applications for HREEs include permanent magnets used in products ranging from electric motors in electric vehicles – to the energy generators within wind turbines,” stated Deborah Rosenblum who is performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. “Without rare earths, these products would not be possible.”
In December 2021, General Motors entered into a long-term agreement with MP Materials, and they will be a key consumer of magnets produced through MP’s HREE mining, separation, and processing efforts. These magnets help create the torque that will propel their electric vehicles.
The Department has also been engaging with MP Materials on scientific advancements to address rare earth processing. In July 2021, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Director Stefanie Tompkins and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy Jesse Salazar visited the site and met with company leaders to discuss further developing secure, reliable, and affordable domestic sourced critical minerals used in defense and commercial manufacturing.