Kentucky ground broken for EV gigafactory

Leaders and representatives on the local and state levels from Envision AESC gathered in Bowling Green Tuesday morning to break ground on the construction of a $2 billion electric vehicle battery production facility in the South Central Kentucky city.

Once complete, the company says the “gigafactory” will employ 2,000 full-time workers at the Kentucky Transpark. The Japanese company will manufacture batteries used by carmakers in their next generation of electric vehicles.

“Every one of our future employees, from production manufacturing to working in maintenance, management and support functions, will be part of putting Bowling Green at the forefront of one of the country’s fastest-growing industries,” Envision AESC U.S. Managing Director Jeff Deaton told the crowd of local and state business, education and civic leaders who attended the groundbreaking.

The “gigafactory” is one of two multi-billion dollar EV battery manufacturing projects slated for Kentucky. An hour north of Bowling Green in Glendale, work is underway to prepare for construction of the BlueOvalSK Battery Park, a $5.8 billion joint venture between Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation that the company says will employ 5,000.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said several supplier companies have already announced intention to build facilities in Kentucky as a result of the Envision and BlueOvalSK projects.

“I anticipate that we will have dozens upon dozens of announcements coming in the next year to two years,” the governor said after the groundbreaking. “There’s no mature battery supply chain, and we’re the biggest producer in the country. It’s going to be really exciting. People want to be as close as they can to the major factories.”

The EV battery plants mark the latest evolution of Kentucky’s automotive industry. For years, the state has been a major manufacturer of vehicles, with two Ford plants in Louisville, a Toyota plant in Georgetown and Chevrolet’s Corvette plant just miles away from Envision’s facility in Bowling Green.

Deaton told The Center Square that the production line will be installed at the 3 million square-foot facility next fall. By the late summer of 2024, the plant will be making trial batteries for EV manufacturers to make sure the batteries work properly. Mass production of the batteries should start in late 2025.

Last week, California officials made headlines when they announced the sale of new gas-powered vehicles would stop in the state by 2035. New York lawmakers created a similar law last year that sets a goal for all passenger car and truck sales by zero emission by 2035. Other states have set similar benchmarks as well.

While Deaton said state decisions are helping propel the EV market, the industry itself is about to take off on its own.

“EVs are better for the environment,” he told The Center Square. “They have less complexity. And I think ultimately, as the cost of those vehicles come down – and we’re basically at that tipping point now, where they’re on par with a gas-engine vehicle – that once people experience an electric vehicle, then I think sales are those are really going to take off. That’s where all the investment is in the automotive sector today.”