Powering the future: Assessment of U.S. light-duty vehicle battery manufacturing jobs by 2032
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Electric vehicles could create hundreds of thousands of new American jobs—if policies hold
While there remains great momentum behind developing domestic supply chains to produce electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States, any new steps to roll back supporting policies risk forfeiting the thousands of jobs that could be gained. As just one example, we estimate that if funding for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program is eliminated (it was paused earlier this month), 13,000 charging infrastructure jobs could fail to materialize. That’s based on announced NEVI charging deployment and the ratio of jobs per charger.
For U.S. officials wanting to increase auto manufacturing jobs, following through on policies that incentivize investment in the United States, like those in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, is the best way to achieve it. Together with the billions of dollars of new investment in clean energy projects across the United States, these policies are expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Like many new technologies, EVs are vulnerable to being smeared as “job killers.” Don’t believe it. Multiple studies have found that EVs require more labor hours to build than internal combustion engine vehicles, primarily due to battery assembly and production. Right now, most automakers in the United States outsource production of EV powertrain components like high-voltage batteries to foreign suppliers; this is what’s behind claims that EVs could require approximately 30% fewer hours and to build. However, if automakers bring that battery production in house and onshore the production of EV powertrain components, the EV transition could lead to more auto manufacturing jobs than there are today.
Analysis from FEV Consulting found that with high levels of vertical integration, EVs would mean more labor in auto manufacturing. Additionally, research from the Economic Policy Institute put things in sharp relief by highlighting two distinctly different futures: It estimated an increase of more than 150,000 jobs in the United States by 2030 as the auto industry transitions toward EVs if there is greater domestic manufacturing of vehicles and EV parts and if sales of American-made vehicles increase. In an alternate future of policy inaction where EV parts and sales are increasingly reliant on imports, however, the study projected job losses in the tens of thousands as EV sales continue to grow.
Indeed, there’s a big opportunity for new domestic industries in battery production and charging infrastructure. Demand for EVs will drive demand for batteries, and ICCT research estimated that this could create up to 125,000 new jobs in the United States in battery manufacturing, battery component manufacturing, and battery recycling by 2032. This is a conservative estimate that does not account for any jobs upstream of battery production and assembly, such as in construction, mining, material extraction, and refining. As of September 2023, we had already identified 15 lithium-ion battery material production plants that extract or process raw materials in Michigan, 11 in Tennessee, seven in Indiana, seven in Texas, six in Kentucky, six in Ohio, and many more across the country. More facilities that extract or process lithium and other raw battery materials can be expected to open if the industry continues to expand, and jobs in such plants are over and above the jobs estimated for battery manufacture and recycling.
Beyond this, EVs will require building a nationwide network of charging infrastructure at homes, workplaces, and various public locations. This will create new jobs in charger assembly, electrical installation, charging software maintenance and repair, and planning and design related to siting chargers. ICCT research estimated that demand for light-duty EV charging infrastructure could create about 140,000 jobs by 2032, with potentially more jobs to come after that.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides incentives for domestic production of EV components by offering tax credits for consumers who purchase and automakers that build EVs in the United States. With these in place, automakers are indeed making steps to vertically integrate EV production. Additionally, in September 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy announced more than $3 billion in federal investment in this sector that could create over 12,000 jobs. We’re already seeing signs of these jobs as private companies have announced more than 230,000 EV-related jobs as of February 2025.
We’re talking about a lot of good jobs—potentially. Thousands of positions are only likely to materialize if existing policies are brought to fruition. If policies are instead weakened or eliminated, there’s a very real risk that job gains will not be realized.
Authors
Logan Pierce
Associate Researcher
Jen Callahan
Managing Editor
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Powering the future: Assessment of U.S. light-duty vehicle battery manufacturing jobs by 2032
The growing U.S. battery industry for light-duty electric vehicles is projected to create 84,000 to 125,000 domestic jobs by 2032.
