Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office, discusses one of LPO’s oldest programs that provides loans to support the manufacture of eligible advanced technology vehicles and qualifying components, including newly authorized modes from the BIL.
November 13, 2023
minute read time
My name is Jigar Shah, and I'm the Director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the Department of Energy (DOE). Today, I want to talk about our Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program. It's one of our oldest programs; and it's a program that was made popular by our loan to Tesla, Ford, and Nissan. The goal of the program is to onshore and reshore a lot of the supply chain for the automotive sector as we decarbonize it in this country.
In the Inflation Reduction Act we were given an additional roughly $40 billion of loan authority to be able to support this program. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law expanded our authorities to include not just electric vehicles, battery manufacturing, and critical minerals; but also to expand our remit to include heavy trucks, medium duty trucks, buses, electric air travel, locomotives, and lots of other electrification in the transportation space.
We're excited about the possibilities of the ATVM Loan Program helping to bring high-quality jobs to this country. Our first loan that came out of the ATVM program in 2022 was the Syrah Resources Project in Vidalia, Louisiana. That project is a critical minerals project that features graphite processing in the United States. Once that project is fully built out, it is expected to provide a full 25% of all the graphite that we are going to need in this country by 2030.
The next loan that LPO provided was the Ultium Project. This project is three battery manufacturing facilities that are going to produce over 100 gigawatt hours of battery manufacturing capacity. Just to put that in perspective for you, to meet the President's goals in 2030 (e.g., shipping of all new cars being electric vehicles) we would need 800 gigawatt hours of battery manufacturing capacity. This project alone is going to be over one eighth of everything that we need to meet the goals in 2030. We're super excited about where this is headed.
LPO is at the center of making sure that America remains the undisputed leader in ATVM. It's an exciting time for innovation at DOE. Request a pre application consultation. Let's talk about your project soon.
* This blog is a part of the Getting to Know LPO series, which provides more information about the role of the Loan Programs Office at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Jigar Shah
Former Director, Loan Programs Office
Jigar Shah served as Director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from March 2021 to January 2025. He led and directed LPO’s loan authority to support deployment of innovative clean energy, advanced transportation, and Tribal energy projects in the United States. Prior, Shah was co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing. Prior to Generate Capital, Shah founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing. After SunEdison, Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change.
Shah was also featured in TIME's list of the "100 Most Influential People" in 2024.
Originally from Illinois, Shah holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois-UC and an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park.