Chinese Battery Maker Gotion To Build $2bn Illinois Plant

Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion High-Tech is to build a massive $2 billion (£1.6bn) plant in the US state of Illinois, with production set to begin next year.

The Kankakee County plant is expected to create 2,600 jobs in what state governor J B Pritzker described as the “most significant new manufacturing investment in Illinois in decades”.

Gotion received state incentives valued at $536m for the plant, which it intends to focus on lithium-ion battery cells, battery packs and energy storage systems.

The company plans to use an existing site rather than building a new factory, a 150-acre facility in the village of Manteno, south of Chicago.

EV projects

It is expected to produce 10 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion battery packs and 40GWh of lithium-ion battery cells.

The company is eligible for $123m in tax benefits over 30 years as part of the state funding package in addition to $125m in capital funding from Illinois’ Reimagining Energy and Vehicles incentive programme.

“Gotion’s battery technology will help to boost e-mobility in North America and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the United States,” said Li Zhen, chairman of Gotion, in a statement.

Global electric vehicle battery makers and car manufacturers have recently focused on the North American market in order to diversify supply chains and to receive incentives under the US’ Inflation Reduction Act.

Innovate Illinois

The law, which provides tax credits and grants for EV, battery and clean energy projects, has spurred competition amongst US states to offer their own incentives for such industries, through programmes such as the recently created Innovate Illinois task force.

Gotion’s plans show how the US and China are continuing to work together in some fields, in spite of increasingly harsh rhetoric on both sides and tech export restrictions levied by the US against China in recent months and years.