President Barack Obama announced today the first set of auto loans for improvements in car technology. Nissan’s Smyrna plant will receive $1.6 billion in loans from the Department of Energy program.

$1.6 billion to Nissan North America to retool their Smyrna, Tennessee factory to build advanced electric automobiles and to build an advanced battery manufacturing facility.

The federal funds could produce 1,000 new jobs in Rutherford County and protect the jobs and the area families who depend on them.

A $1.6 billion federal loan for Nissan North America Inc. to build a zero-emissions electric car and battery packs to power them could eventually create more than 1,000 new jobs at the automaker’s assembly complex in Tennessee.

Gov. Phil Bredesen issued the following statement:

“The loans announced today will have a tremendous, positive impact on Nissan and our state’s automotive industry. Best of all, this means 1,300 more jobs for Tennessee workers and expands our growing clean energy economy. I’m especially pleased these advanced vehicle technology loans will expand the existing Nissan plant in Smyrna and add a new state-of-the-art battery plant. It also complements the state’s efforts to develop electric vehicle infrastructure for the type of zero emission vehicles that will be built in Smyrna.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 6:22 pm and is filed under 2010, Business, Economy, Energy, Gov. Phil Bredesen, Jobs, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.