(NewsNation) — Chinese battery company Gotion has abandoned a plan to build a $2.4 billion plant in Michigan to produce material for electric vehicles, the state said Thursday.
The plan, first announced in October 2022, was expected to create 2,350 jobs but came under criticism from some lawmakers for the company’s Chinese ownership. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation said none of a $125 million state grant for the project was ever disbursed, and it will pursue repayment of another $23.6 million state award that went toward purchase of the property.
The news was first reported by Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. An MEDC official told Crain’s that without the grant dollars, she didn’t see how the plant could be built.
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“While this is not the outcome we hoped for, we recognize the tremendous responsibility we have to the people we serve to make sure their hard-earned tax dollars are spent wisely and appropriately,” the MEDC said in a statement released to NewsNation local affiliate WOOD-TV Thursday. “We continue to focus on securing advanced manufacturing investments, especially across ICE, EV and hybrid vehicles to position Michigan at the forefront of the mobility revolution as it evolves and adapts to market conditions within this decade and beyond. We will continue doing all we can to bring good-paying jobs and economic opportunity to Michiganders everywhere.”
Introduced in October 2022, the proposed plant carried a price tag of about $2.4 billion and promised to create about 2,350 jobs.
But many residents and Republican lawmakers pushed back over Gotion’s ties to China — Gotion Inc. is a subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-tech Co. Ltd. — as well as environmental concerns. Gotion Inc. said the project had nothing to do with the Chinese Communist Party and argued the plant would create high-paying jobs and spur economic growth.
On Thursday, Green Township resident Lori Brock said the project “would have been horrible.”
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“It would have entirely uprooted our way of life. Half the people, more than half the people that live here, live here because they don’t want to be in the city,” she said. “We have rivers, we have lakes, we have trout fishing, everything you could ever want in an up-north, rural community. … They were going to uproot that entire thing with absolutely no input from the community.”
Green Township initially approved the project in 2023, but voters then recalled and replaced several members of local leadership, with the new members voting to end support. Gotion sued in response. A judge initially sided with Gotion, but the decision was appealed. In January, Mecosta County commissioners also pulled their support of the project.
NewsNation local affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, contributed to this report.
