Volvo, ZF, and Cummins have been awarded a total of US$441 million from the Department of Energy in the United States to help accelerate the production of heavy-duty electric trucks and related powertrain components.

Under the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion grant programme, Volvo Technology of America will receive $208 million to upgrade facilities at the Volvo Group’s Lehigh Valley Operations truck assembly site in Macungie, Pennsylvania, where it produces Mack trucks, and its New River Valley truck manufacturing plant in Dublin, Virginia.

The funding will see almost US$158 million got to ZF Axle Drives to convert part of its Marysville, Michigan, facility from ICE component production to EV component production.

Cummins will receive US$75 million in matching funds to convert 360,000 square feet of an engine plant in Columbus, Indiana, to manufacture electric powertrain systems.

Volvo said the upgrades enable a “novel manufacturing approach” that will significantly increase the production capacity potential of battery-electric vehicles [and] fuel cell electric vehicles.

Stephen Roy, chairman of Volvo Group North America and president of Mack Trucks, said, “Through facility upgrades and employee training, this grant will help our US plants more efficiently produce the innovative trucks and zero-emission powertrain components essential to this transition.”

The projects are expected to create 295 new union jobs for Volvo and Mack.