Michigan

OKs incentives for Ford EV battery plant $1B package secures factory in Marshall

DAVID EGGERT

LANSING — Michigan’s economic development arm last week approved a big incentives package to secure a new $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery factory and 2,500 jobs in Marshall.

e agreement with Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. includes roughly $1 billion in cash and tax breaks, with hundreds of millions more likely coming later to support the project.

A Ford subsidiary will own the plant about 95 miles west of Detroit, and its workers will build the lithium iron phosphate batteries using knowledge and services provided by China-based partner Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world’s largest producer of EV batteries.

Jobs will pay between $20 and $50 an hour. e batteries will be used in several types of Ford vehicles.

“ is project represents a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity,” Marshall City Manager Derek Perry told the Michigan Strategic Fund Board before it took three separate 10-0 votes. “It will create economic opportunities while allowing us to preserve our unique local culture, character and way of life.” e incentives for the BlueOval Battery Park, a key for Ford’s plans to make 2 million EVs by the end of 2026, include:

 A $210 million Critical Industry Program grant from Michigan’s Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund, known as SOAR. Lawmakers will have to OK the transfer, too.  A Renaissance Zone tax exemption on real and personal property worth an estimated $772 million over 15 years.