WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said Monday it is proposing to loan up to $7.54 billion to a joint venture of automaker Stellantis ( STLA ) and Samsung SDI to help build two electric vehicle 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 for the StarPlus Energy joint venture. The venture will build batteries for Stellantis ( STLA ) electric vehicles and at full capacity will produce about 67 GWh of batteries, enough to supply approximately 670,000 vehicles annually, the Energy Department said.