Ford Motor Company’s announcement on Monday to create a massive industrial campus in Jackson marked the biggest — but not the first — major investment in the electric vehicle industry in Tennessee.
The state, after all, leads the southeastern U.S. in electric vehicle manufacturing.
Since 2013, Tennessee is the home of more than 152,000 electric vehicles and more than $6.2 billion in related capitol investment, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
In Spring Hill, General Motors has invested more than $4.3 billion during the last 18 months to manufacture electric cars and the batteries that charge them.
In Clarksville, Tennessee’s fifth-largest city, a nine-digit industrial investment is coming, part of the electric-powered automotive movement. Also in Middle Tennessee, Nissan, which in 1983 opened the state’s first automobile factory in Smyrna, helped to build interest in Interstate 840.
In East Tennessee, Japan-based DENSO invested $1 billion in Maryville five years ago to create and expand more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs.
Travel south to Chattanooga to experience a sizable EV investment by Gestamp US: $94.7 million.
Nearly 20,000 Tennesseans — from Columbia to Clarksville — are employed by companies with EV operations, which expect to produce more than 200,000 EVs by 2028. That milestone, however, may be realized sooner than expected as the supply chain for electric-powered vehicles continues to ramp up in the region.
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GM sets mark with hefty investments
In Spring Hill, General Motors has invested more than $4.3 billion during the last 18 months to manufacture electric cars and the batteries that charge them.
In April, GM announced the single-largest investment in state history — the construction of a $2.3 million Ultium Cells electric battery facility in partnership with South Korea’s LG Energy Solutions. The facility is expected to open in late 2023.
And last October, GM announced a $2 billion investment to manufacture the Cadillac Lyriq, an electric luxury SUV, at the Spring Hill plant.
The Tennessee investments are part of GM’s goal to shift to an all-electric, carbon neutral portfolio by 2040, including heavy-duty pickup trucks. The Detroit-based automaker aspires to stop selling gas-powered, light-duty trucks and sports utility vehicles by 2035, although the date may adjust in the coming decades.
More EV investments on the way
Already, American-owned-and-operated Microvast Power Solutions selected Clarksville as the site where it will manufacture electric vehicle batteries primarily for commercial vehicles. The decision is expected to bring 287 new direct jobs and a $220 million investment to Montgomery County.
Microvast has executed a purchase sale agreement on a local site previously owned by Akebono Brakes, and plans to transition the facility from brake manufacturing to a Li-ion battery manufacturing facility, officials announced earlier this year.
Microvast is expected to begin production next summer.
Incentives and property tax abatements
Incentives from state and the property tax abatement deals from the Rutherford County Industrial Development Board sparked significant growth in Middle Tennessee.
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By 2009, Nissan announced plans to build the LEAF, an electric car, and a battery plant. Rutherford County’s IDB agreed to an initial 20-year, $62 million property tax abatement for Nissan’s plans. The project included the addition of 1,300 jobs to build the electric batteries and the LEAF by the end of 2012. (The deal was later revised to a 30-year $70.7 million property tax abatement.)
To help Nissan pursue battery and electric car projects, the U.S. Department of Energy in 2010 awarded Nissan a $1.4 billion loan. The arrangement pleased former U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Murfreesboro.
“This investment will be an incredible boon to thousands of Tennesseans and their families, and it will cement our status as a leader in advanced manufacturing and green industry,” Gordon said in 2010.
Although the battery plant continues to exist at Nissan’s 884-acre campus in Smyrna, the company adjusted IDB arrangements in 2018 after selling the battery factory to Envision Group. Nissan’s main car factory is nearly 6 million square feet.
Nissan touts the factory as able to build up to 640,000 automobiles annually. The Smyrna factory now builds the Maxima, LEAF, Pathfinder, Rogue, INFINITI QX60 and Murano brands.
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‘Tennessee is known as a global leader in automotive manufacturing’
Gestamp US, a subsidiary of Spain-based Gestamp Automócion S.A., provided the funding to expand operations at its Ferdinand Peich Way and Hickory Valley Road plants in Chattanooga.
The project marks Gestamp’s third local expansion in a decade. The project will create 260 additional jobs over the next five years.
Gestamp provides welded assemblies and metal stampings to automotive manufactures, and is undergoing this expansion to meet higher demands for EV production.
“Tennessee is known as a global leader in automotive manufacturing, and it is because of companies like Gestamp that our state’s automotive industry continues to grow and excel,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in a previous statement on the expansion.
Also in Chattanooga is Volkswagen’s first North American EV manufacturing facility. The project, first announced in early 2019, marks a $800 million investment. It will create 1000 jobs in Hamilton County.
The facility will manufacture vehicles that use Volkswagen’s modular electric toolkit chassis, or MEB. Production at the facility is expected to begin in early 2022.
In February, state officials announced that Axle Manufacturing company will move new operations to Tennessee, resulting in an investment of $42 million, as well as 240 jobs.
Sese Industrial Services will build a 300,000 square-foot Axle Assembly plant in Chattanooga, where components for the Volkswagen electric vehicle line will be manufactured.
More EV on the horizon in Tennessee
DENSO is a major manufacturing supplier for companies such as Honda and Toyota.
The newly-expanded production lines focus on environmentally-friendly parts and vehicle security systems, according to the company, which hopes to “significantly increase the role North America plays in the global trend toward vehicle safety and electrification.”
The aforementioned industries seem to be only the beginning for EV investments in the state.
Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@gannett.com, by phone at 731-343-5212, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham. Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips at sbroden@dnj.com or 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. Reach Jimmy Settle at jimmysettle@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0247. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to TheLeafChronicle.com.
