The proposal is likely to further power up sentiment surrounding battery minerals miners and commodity prices, which are surging so far this year.

The US market share of plug-in electric vehicles was only one-third the size of the Chinese EV market and the president believed that must change, the White House said.

Biden's American Jobs Plan included electrifying the federal fleet, offering point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made EVs, and providing incentives for state and local governments and the private sector to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030.

"His plan will enable automakers to spur domestic supply chains from raw materials to parts, retool factories to compete globally, and support American workers to make batteries and EVs," the briefing room statement said.

"Infrastructure isn't just about roads and bridges — it's about our global competitiveness," Biden said.

"And as we continue to fall back, the rest of the world is closing in. We can't allow this to continue. We have to invest in America again."

'As big as it gets'

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence managing director Simon Moores reacted promptly to Biden's commitment to win the EV market.

"This needs to pass the House and Senate, but the sentiment and actual wording is about as big as it gets for the USA," he tweeted.

The battery supply chain research and price reporting agency said yesterday the lack of investment in nickel sulphate capacity left the battery and EV industry facing "significant" shortages from 2024 onwards, culminating in a 1.1 million tonne shortfall in 2030.

Benchmark separately said Chinese automaker Geely's plans announced this month for a new 42GWh cell base in Ganzhou, China, meant Benchmark was now tracking 200 lithium-ion battery megafactories in the pipeline to 2030.