With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — the most significant climate change policy passed in our country to date — engineers, like myself, are at the center of developing and deploying the clean energy technology in record time. Importantly, these technologies include the batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), a centerpiece of the legislation and long-time foundation of strategies to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The IRA lays out some tough — and dramatic — engineering challenges for EV batteries.
For example, scaling up battery production in the U.S. is a cornerstone of the IRA. In it, EVs receive a tax credit only if their batteries meet certain criteria. According to the bill, in just six short years, receiving a tax credit for an EV would require its entire battery to be manufactured domestically. Yes, the Tesla Gigafactory is a household…