MARNE – President Joe Biden’s Build America, Buy America Act, enacted in 2021, focuses heavily on using American products to build charging stations as the country prepares for electrification of the auto industry and infrastructure.

The tallest order is the requirement at least 55% of the cost of all components are manufactured domestically by 2024, and charging companies warned the U.S. isn’t prepared for the sourcing and production needed to meet the requirement. DeWys Metal Solutions in Ottawa County is waiting in the wings.

The metal fabrication company, just 12 miles northwest of downtown Grand Rapids in Marne, has been expanding its renewable energy business to serve industries like EV chargers, battery and solar enclosures and automated guided vehicles.

The company evolved out of a little red barn where Mark DeWys founded the manufacturing company in 1977. Now the company has found a foothold in every step of the supply chain: design, laser cutting, powder coating, welding, assembly and more.

DeWys entered the electric market a decade ago when it started building enclosures for charging stations and batteries for electric buses. When government subsidies for electric buses dried up they shut down the facility.

Now with the Build America, Buy America Act is focused on the consumer side with charging stations, so is DeWys, said President Mark Schoenborn.

“There’s a huge gap from the supply base that can support this industry compared to what there [actually] is today,” he said. “Based on our experience of setting up a facility, doing this already in years past, we really strategically went out and marketed to this because we knew there was going to be a need. We’ve seen amazing momentum.”

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