The Biden administration announced Thursday it plans to award $1.7 billion in grant money to convert 11 shuttered or at-risk auto plants to manufacture electric vehicles and parts.

The Domestic Auto Manufacturing Conversion Grants program is funded through the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress in 2022.

Administration officials said the grants will ensure 15,000 workers remain employed and create 2,900 new jobs.

The projects will allow the companies to produce more than 1 million electric light-duty vehicles and 40,000 electric trucks and buses per year, nearly doubling the country’s annual production of EVs, the Biden administration said. It will also boost manufacturing of parts for EVs, including batteries. 

“For so long, we acted as though the best days of American manufacturing were behind us and there was nothing we could do about it,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a call with reporters Wednesday. “And under President Biden, we are doing something about it.”

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said the announcement shows “we can achieve our climate goals and our good-job goals at the same time. In fact, we must.”

The companies identified for the grants are located across eight states — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. They include American Autoparts, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Harley Davidson and Volvo. 

The Biden administration, however, stressed the grants are still subject to negotiations with the companies. Granholm said a condition of the funding is that companies make strong commitments to protect autoworkers, including by training them to ensure they “have the skills to remain essential in the next industrial revolution.”

Every factory selected is unionized, Granholm added.

"This delivers on my commitment to never give up on the manufacturing communities and workers that were left behind by my predecessor and are now making a comeback with the support of my policies, including the conversion grants my administration is announcing today," Biden said in a statement Thursday morning. "These grants will help ensure the future of the auto industry is made in America by American union workers."

The Energy Department also will complete reviews to confirm the funded projects are in line with the administration’s environmental goals. The grants will allow companies to install new equipment aimed at making their operations cleaner and more efficient.

A senior administration official said the companies will not receive the funding all at once but rather in tranches that are unlocked when negotiated milestones are reached.

White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said the program is the latest step toward the U.S. being more competitive globally in EV manufacturing.

“Folks looked at the United States lagging on private investment in the electric vehicle revolution that's taking place around the world, lagging countries like China,” he said. “And now, thanks to the president's leadership, and despite all the skeptics who said it could not be done, the U.S. is leading — the No. 1 nation destination for clean energy manufacturing capacity, attracting that private capital, becoming a magnet for that investment to come here to the United States.”

Editor's note: This article was updated to include President Joe Biden's statement.