FORD

Brand receives $884 million in state money to invest in electrifying its vehicles

Tennessee lawmakers approved an $884 million stimulus package to build a megafield near Memphis, where Ford plans to manufacture electric vehicles and batteries.

The money will come from Tennessee's current budget surplus of $2.1 billion – the size of the package will be the largest investment in the state's history. The program was launched at a time when many major automakers are building new factories in the United States with a focus on producing electric vehicles, batteries and other parts needed for green transportation. Ford itself has already announced that it will spend $5 billion on a joint project with battery maker SK Innovation, called Blue Oval City. At the same time, the project to build a battery factory in the state of Kentucky was launched.

Of this amount, US$ 500 million will be paid in the form of a scholarship. The remainder will be distributed according to several items: $200 million for road construction, $138.2 million for other infrastructure and demolition works, $40 million for the construction of a new Tennessee College of Applied Technologies building near the auto complex and another $5 million for legal services. In addition, US$ 745.1 thousand will be allocated to the creation of a new government body, which will be composed of 11 members, including the governor, the vice-governor and the president of the Chamber of Deputies. The authority will oversee land and natural resource use issues.

According to the project, the campus will occupy more than 23 km² – this is the largest complex that Ford has ever built. The unit itself will create 6,000 jobs, but taking into account the “direct, indirect and related” positions, calculated in the governor's office, 27,000 jobs will be created. In tax collection alone, the project will earn the state $22.4 million a year, while the region's total annual revenue will reach $1 billion.

Before settling in Tennessee, Ford looked at several other locations across the country. The final choice was based on the low cost of electricity in the state and the presence of undeveloped land with no associated environmental problems. Tesla set the trend for big stimulus packages for automakers in 2014, when it effectively pitted several states against each other before announcing that a Gigafactory would be built in Nevada. The $1.3 billion package at the time was the largest in the state's history. More recently, however, Tesla abandoned a large Oklahoma package to build a factory in Austin, Texas, that offered only a few million in tax breaks. Similar projects are being implemented in the United States by many automakers: GM in collaboration with LG Chem, as well as Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

Autonews