The Advanced Technology Vehicle Loans provided by the US government helped massively expand Nissan LEAF production, brought large scale EV battery manufacturing facilities to the US, has promised to help Rivian expand and was a huge part of what allowed Tesla to reach production.

Those loans might now be going away. We look at the history of the loans, what they achieved, and why they might be coming to an end.

And we promise there's no pictures of Elon Musk or Trump.

We appreciate Plug In America's generous rights clearance for their images, and urge you all to donate here: https://pluginamerica.org/?form=FUNLHRARVGD

00:00 - Introduction 01:09 - The automakers didn't want to build EVs 02:39 - Automakers claimed they couldn't build them so... 04:18 - The Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program 07:07 - How does the loan program work? 09:49 - The ATVM loans are conditional 10:48 - Examples of ATVM loans 13:39 - What about the failures? 16:30 - So what is DOGE doing? 18:38 - What will be the impacts? 24:12 - Final thoughts 25:48 - Thanks and Credits

References

https://web.archive.org/web/20230813071455/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/28/business/expecting-a-fizzle-gm-puts-electric-car-to-test.html https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/26/us/california-is-backing-off-mandate-for-electric-car.html https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/zero-emission-vehicle-program/about https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/zev2003/22004memo.pdf https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/6/cosponsors https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/29/florida-republicans-immigrant-jobs-child-labor https://publicintegrity.org/environment/energy-department-bet-on-fisker-automotive-ends-in-bankruptcy/ (This site has a degree of very subtle right wing bias...) https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/elon-musk-business-government-contracts-funding/ https://abcnews.go.com/US/musk-works-slash-federal-spending-firms-received-billions/story?id=118589121 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-twitter-value-advertising-2025-3 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/29/musks-companies-got-billions-from-the-government-now-hes-pulling-up-the-ladder-behind-him https://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-battery-swap-harris-ranch-20150310-story.html https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/04/cost-of-doge-cuts-appear-to-wipe-out-most-of-agencys-reported-savings.html https://www.ocregister.com/2013/04/25/washington-hearing-puts-fisker-in-the-hot-seat/

Script: Kate Walton-Elliott, Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield Presenter: Kate Walton-Elliott
Editor, Colorist: Kate Walton-Elliott Art and Animation: Erin Carlie Producer: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield Music supplied through Artlist.io © Transport Evolved LLC, 2025

Links:

PLEASE help support the channel (if you are going to use Amazon) by using our Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/40xOyjm As amazon affiliates, we will earn money from qualifying purchases made using this code.

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC675NhQ4EU5TzwCMwYp5XCw/join This video was made possible thanks to the kind donations of our supporters on Patreon and Ko-fi. Join them in supporting us. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/transportevolved Buy the team a coffee -- or a meal! https://ko-fi.com/transportevolved Donate using bitcoin: BC1QRZRGCCXUKPDZ2DZ9KX9JYJXMZDYHYGFZ0MN4WH Support us by buying some merch at https://www.redbubble.com/people/TransportEVd/shop Follow our 'second' channel - Transport Evolved Take Two, at https://www.youtube.com/transportevolvedtake2 Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/U3tnkGNfCA
Follow the show on Mastodon: https://mastodon.transportevolved.com/ Follow the show on PeerTube: transport_evolved_main@peertube.tv Use the TE Aptera referral code - i.refs.cc/zz56EbIi - but watch our explainer video FIRST: https://youtu.be/mwzwEssgqNI Sign up for EnergySage at https://www.kqzyfj.com/click-101290941-16952262