A Japanese technology company plans to build a $2 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Bowling Green. Envision AESC estimates the plant will bring 2,000 jobs to the area.
Gov. Andy Beshear made the announcement at a press briefing Wednesday.
This is the second EV battery plant headed to Kentucky. Last year, Beshear announced Ford Motor Company would be building its own plant in Glendale.
“With today’s announcement, we solidify that the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the undisputed electric battery production capital of the United States of America,” Beshear said.
Leaders in Warren County said it’s the largest investment the area has ever seen.
“Our city is ecstatic to be the new home of Envision AESC,” Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott said. “Envision AESC will have a substantial economic impact on our community.”
“The location of our gigafactory in Bowling Green, Ky. provides the best solution to our demanding set of requirements,” Shoichi Matsumoto, CEO of Envision AESC, said. “It is strongly positioned to supply multiple automotive manufacturers across the country, producing up to 300,000 batteries for electric vehicles a year by 2027.”
Company leadership indicated this could be the first of many investments in Kentucky.
“This first phase of development will unlock further larger-scale investment to grow the local supply chain and development opportunities around the life cycle of batteries bring economic renewal to the industrial heartlands of this region,” Matsumoto said.
The facility is planned at 3 million square feet on a 12-acre footprint. Officials said it will be fully powered by renewable energy from on-site solar power generation and from power provider Tennessee Valley Authority.
“Without the local leadership we have in Bowling Green and Warren County, we wouldn’t have made it,” Rep. State Sen. Mike Wilson, who represents Bowling Green, said.
Wilson credited Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon, who worked to get the Kentucky Transpark approved. The industrial park has several other factories and will house the Envision AESC EV battery park.
“This announcement is so important to our community,” Buchanon said. “This is transformational in many ways, it is the business that will take us into a new era. Our future will be surrounded by what happens on this project.”
The plant is projected to be at full operational capacity by 2027.
