Officials still confident about northern Indiana EV battery plant
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The executive director of economic development for St. Joseph County says New Carlisle is still the likely choice for a planned electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant despite those plans being put on hold. General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) earlier this month halted plans indefinitely for a $2.4 billion facility from its Ultium Cells joint venture with South Korea-based LG Energy Solution, but Bill Schalliol said northern Indiana is still a top pick.
“What we’ve been told is if they’re going to build a fourth plant, it likely will be here,” Schalliol told Around INdiana Reporter Mary-Rachel Redman. “They’re not talking to other sites. They’re not looking at other sites. This is their site for a fourth plant. That’s what we’ve been told now.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the two partners couldn’t come to an agreement on building the plant. Ultium Cells has already completed one plant in Ohio and has two others in the works in Michigan and Tennessee.
A 656-acre site at the Indiana Enterprise Center in New Carlisle was one of several being considered for the fourth plant, which would cover about 2.5 million square feet and create 1,600 jobs.
The St. Joseph County Council approved an economic development agreement and tax incentives for the project in September if the site is chosen.
Schalliol said officials in St. Joseph County have been in regular conversation with GM, which has given them confidence that New Carlisle could still be home to such a facility.
“We’re pretty comfortable with the amount of time and the effort and the energy being expended here that, you know, this will be the fourth plant,” he said. “And [that could be a] plant with just GM on the side of the building or a fourth plant, you know, with a different name on the building that GM’s a partner of.”
The New Carlisle site brings many benefits for the project, according to Schalliol, including access to power and water but particularly location.
“We’ve got a site that’s over 700 acres; [there are] not a lot of those floating around in the United States. So, this gives them not only the opportunity for this project but could give them opportunity for growth for other plants on the site or other partners to develop on the site. So, we think it’s a real good opportunity.”
Schalliol said officials have had conversations with GM about a potential construction timeline but depending on what direction GM takes with the project, more public consideration would need to be made since the previously-approved incentives and economic development agreement involved LG Energy Solution.
“We anticipate that over the next couple of weeks, we’ll have a better sense of what a timeline looks like.”