WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy

Department on Monday said it has finalized a $9.63 billion loan

to a joint venture of Ford Motor ( F ) and South Korean battery

maker SK On to help finance construction of three new battery

manufacturing plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The low-cost government loan for the Blue Oval SK joint

venture is the largest ever from the government's Advanced

Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program. SK On is the

battery unit of energy group SK Innovation.

The amount is higher than the $9.2 billion conditional

commitment announced in June 2023 and comes just weeks before

President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump and his

advisers have been critical of the Biden administration's

efforts to incentivize EV production.

The joint venture is building battery manufacturing

facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee that will enable more than

120 gigawatt hours of U.S. battery production annually.

Blue Oval SK said it has invested more than $11 billion to

date in the construction of the three 4-million-square-foot

facilities and plans to begin production at the first Kentucky

plant in 2025 and will be ready to begin production in Tennessee

in late 2025.

Earlier this month, DOE said it is planning to loan up to

$7.54 billion to the StarPlus Energy joint venture of

Chrysler-parent Stellantis ( STLA ) and Samsung SDI

to help build two EV lithium-ion battery plants in

Indiana.

The conditional commitment award must still be finalized and

includes $6.85 billion in principal and $688 million in

capitalized interest

DOE said last month it was proposing to loan Rivian up to

$6.6 billion to build a plant in Georgia to begin building

smaller, less expensive EVs in 2028.

In December 2022, DOE finalized a $2.5 billion low-cost loan

to a joint venture of General Motors ( GM ) and LG Energy

Solution to help pay for three new lithium-ion battery cell

manufacturing facilities in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.