Wallace State Community College students look over a Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 prior to the college’s announced partnership with Mercedes-Benz in December 2018.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has awarded Wallace State Community College $1,169,958 to be used in training future employees for the growing electric vehicle (EV) sector. Wallace State will partner with the American Trucking Association, Freightliner, Kenworth, and Mercedes-Benz to bring their Mechatronics, Automotive Services, and Diesel Technician programs into alignment with electric vehicle (EV) needs.

These needs include technicians ready for smart manufacturing and the servicing of electric vehicles and electric heavy-duty trucks. Based on a previous POWER-funded study of automotive manufacturing in North central Alabama, ARC states Wallace State will update its Mechatronics Program and create new EV programs in its Automotive Services and Diesel Technician programs to include the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by the industry. Students and workers/trainees will receive on-the-job training, complete the appropriate National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and electric truck certifications, and create a talent pipeline for high-wage EV careers.

According to a the ARC, Wallace State will serve 230 students by the third year of programming, preparing workers for new employment opportunities in an area that has experienced the loss of jobs in the coal sector.

“Wallace State has always been a leader in developing students into highly skilled and productive employees in a number of fields,” said Congressman Robert Aderholt. “This grant will continue that leadership and tradition in the new and growing EV sector. I know that Dr. Vicki Karolewics and the dedicated staff, faculty, and students at Wallace will put this money to good use. This money will also directly impact the economy in the 4th Congressional District and Alabama.”

ARC is an economic development partnership agency of the federal government and 13 state governments focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region.

In another push to boost production and sales of electric vehicles, the Biden administration on Wednesday awarded $2.8 billion in grants to build and expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles in 12 states. A total of 20 companies will receive grants for projects to extract and process lithium, graphite and other battery materials, manufacture components and strengthen U.S. supply of critical minerals, officials said.

Biden has vowed to boost U.S. production of lithium and other critical minerals, and the sweeping climate and health-care law passed in August includes several provisions to boost electric vehicles, including tax credits for EV buyers worth up to $7,500.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who announced the grant competition in May, called the funding announcement “huge” news that would expand made-in-America battery manufacturing for EVs and the electric grid. Projects funded under the grants will “make battery materials and components here at home that we currently import from other countries’’ such as China, she said.

The federal grants announced Wednesday are funded by last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure law and are separate from an executive order Biden issued last spring invoking the Defense Production Act to boost production of lithium and other critical minerals used to power electric vehicles.

The grants will help fund projects in at least 12 states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington state.

At least two projects will be located in states that have yet to be selected.

Electric vehicle sales are expected to rise dramatically between now and 2030 in the U.S. and globally. But even at the start of the next decade, they will amount to just over one-third of U.S. new vehicle sales.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.