.VW and other non-US automakers obviously don't want to be at a disadvantage before their Chinese and American competitors, so they have little choice but to pick the US as their next battery factory destination. Another European battery maker - Northvolt - calculated that it will get US$8 billion from the US if it builds its factory there instead of realizing its European project. According to one other executive, they have been "contacted by many US states and they all highlight the IRA. When we put the figures together, the conditions they offer are much more interesting than the conditions they offer in Europe."
The Net Zero Industry Act - an answer to the IRA that the European Commission is expected to reveal next week - is rather short on specifics, said a VW exec who has seen the draft proposal. If Europe doesn't come around to dole out subsidies in a similar to the US fashion, it would risk losing billions upon billions of future battery investment and fall woefully behind in the EV game, they added."
& of course, OEM's know they can't use china's hydroxide cathodes, once they set-up shop here.