Mayor: Soulbrain project beginning of ripple effect from Stellantis
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Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore says Tuesday’s announcement from Michigan-based Soulbrain MI further solidifies the city’s emergence in the electric vehicle battery market. The company is planning to invest $75 million to establish a plant to manufacture high purity electrolyte for EV batteries produced at the Stellantis-Samsung SDI plant in the Howard County city and create up to 75 jobs. “[It] poises us to be on the forefront of this new technology and move in the automotive industry,” Moore said.
Stellantis (NYSE: STLA) and Samsung SDI announced in May a joint venture, now dubbed StarPlus Energy LLC, that would invest $2.5 billion to establish an EV battery manufacturing plant in Kokomo and create 1,400 jobs.
Moore told Inside INdiana Business the Stellantis project makes Kokomo very attractive for additional companies.
“As we were finalizing the deal with Stellantis and Samsung SDI…we knew that with the size and scope of that project that there would be suppliers that would be following close by to want to locate in close proximity to the manufacturing, that would be not only providing the parts and components of the battery but also servicing some of the byproducts and such,” Moore said. “As we continued to meet with Stellantis and the Samsung SDI folks, we knew that there would be the potential for this ripple effect of suppliers wanting to be part of the action.”
Soulbrain MI, a subsidiary of South Korea-based Soulbrain Holdings, is set to break ground next March on the 30,000-square-foot facility on a 22-acre site at 2141 North Touby Pike.
The company plans to begin hiring for the new jobs in early 2024. Moore says between the Stellantis and Soulbrain plants, finding the necessary workforce may be a challenge, but the region is preparing.
“With the workforce that we have here in Kokomo and Howard County and even the surrounding area and a lot of those high school and college age folks that are in the pipeline, we’re confident with the tools and resources that we have both at IU [Kokomo] and Ivy Tech here locally, that they’ll be able to spit out the workforce that they’ll eventually need,” he said.
Moore says the city will continue to create the necessary incentives as more companies look to Kokomo as well as continuing quality of place efforts.
“I think a lot of what my predecessor had done in the downtown development initiatives and quality of life and quality of place that makes Kokomo so unique, we’ll continue those efforts because obviously a lot of those folks that will be working not only at the battery plant but at suppliers…we’ll want them to eventually end up in Kokomo and Howard County, and so a lot of that will come from the amenities we provide, the schools and education levels that we also offer. It’ll be all hands on deck in all aspects of development.”
The IEDC has offered Soulbrain MI up to $1.1 million in conditional tax credits and $100,000 in training grants, and the city is considering additional incentives.