LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Strategic Fund voted Tuesday morning to approve an incentive package worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the $2.5 billion Lansing battery plant proposed by General Motors and LG Energy Solution and the conversion of the company's Orion Township assembly plant for electric truck production.
Through their joint venture Ultium Cells LLC, the two companies plan to construct a new electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant adjacent to GM's Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant.
This yes vote from the Michigan Strategic Fund was critical for the project to move forward. The package included a $600 million Critical Industry Program grant, a $66.1 million Strategic Site Readiness Program grant and approved Renewable Energy Renaissance Zone for 18 years, which exempts the project from Lansing city taxes.
"States are recognizing that the economic shape of the next twenty years is occurring right now," said Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, in a statement. "All of these massive projects are receiving specially approved or newly advanced economic incentives from states and communities. This rare moment in history is defining the future of whole industries for the next 20-30 years, and which communities/states remain on the cutting edge of a global future economy."
Michigan has been competing with states like Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky to get a new battery manufacturing plant, which is expected to bring 1,700 jobs to mid-Michigan.
Once completed, it would be Ultium's third U.S. battery plant. The plant will be a 2.5-million-square-foot facility.
"Currently, over 10,000 people are employed within the automobility cluster in the Lansing region and we want to retain and expand those jobs--sustainably. This proposed project represents a secure future for our region and state in making electric powered vehicles, batteries and systems," Trezise said.
The incentives are designed to offset the cost of locating the battery plant project in Michigan over other locations and competitive offers from other states.
"The net gain to us as a state and region is incalculable, because we are a securing the future of an industry critical to our region and the entire state," Trezise said. "Our regional package is not cash or up-front money taken from somewhere else, it is tax and rate breaks on new potential revenue that otherwise would not exist, unless for the incentives attracting the new plant.”
GM also plans to spending $4 billion to convert an existing plant in Orion Township into third electric vehicle factory, creating an estimated 2,300 jobs.
State leaders, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and GM's CEO Mary Barra are set to gather for an announcement later today.
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