South Carolina plans to invest $1.3 billion in an electric vehicle factory
South Carolina’s governor said Monday he would ask lawmakers to approve nearly $1.3 billion to bring a new electric-vehicle plant into the state from a Volkswagen-backed corporation trying to revitalize a brand which was a forerunner of today’s SUVs in the 1960s.
Officials from Scout Motors Inc. and South Carolina announced plans to begin building new Scout vehicles, this time electric powered, for the first time since 1980. They hope to hire 4,000 workers for the $2 billion plant.
Scout relies on nostalgia combined with an expected boom in voting vehicles. International Harvester manufactured gas-powered Scout vehicles in the 1960s and 1970s. Their shape and features continue to influence modern SUVs, and Scouts have had a niche following of collectors ever since.
In the race to produce electric vehicles on land, South Carolina is trying to join its neighbors in providing billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars.
Georgia offered Hyundai Motor Group $1.8 billion in incentives for their first US electric vehicle plant near Savannah. North Carolina appears to be offering Vietnamese automaker VinFast more than $1 billion in aid for its first North American electric vehicle plant.
South Carolina is determined to be a big player in the electric vehicle industry and all the things that come with it, like making batteries.
Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order in October requiring the state Department of Commerce to aggressively court companies operating in the industry and give them a single point of contact.
This seemed to work on Scout. Company officials said they wanted to act quickly. They reached 74 potential locations across the country, and South Carolina sealed the deal in two months, said Scott Keogh, president of Scout Motors.
“Some states were still shuffling the paperwork after 60 days. This state has taken action,” said Keogh, who is also CEO of the Virginia-headquartered independent company and backed by German automaker Volkswagen.
Scout’s new plant would be built north of Columbia along Interstate 77. Groundbreaking and site work could begin this summer, and the company hopes to have 4,000 workers and vehicles rolling off the assembly line by 2026, Keogh said.
When fully operational, Scout Motors hopes to manufacture 200,000 vehicles a year and export them around the world.
The $1.3 billion in federal aid would be used to build a new interchange for the plant off I-77 and a railroad bridge over the freeway. There would be other improvements to sewerage, power and roads, as well as grants the company could use for anything to get the company off the ground, South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey said.
The State General Assembly must approve the incentives. Leaders in the Republican-dominated House and Senate appear to support the project wholeheartedly.
McMaster said inflation-adjusted states’ investment in foreign automakers that began producing cars in the United States in the 1990s was similar.
“They always said that in order to make money, you have to spend money,” McMaster said. “Time has proven these are wise decisions.”
Lightsey compared Scout Motor’s attempts to bring a brand with nostalgic ties and the backing of an established automaker into the new electric vehicle industry to Japanese automakers in the late 1980s introducing the luxury brands Lexus and Infiniti.
“This is a unique moment in history,” Lightsey said, calling Scout’s business plan bold several times. “As we began to understand the company’s vision, we realized what a match this was for the state of South Carolina.”
Scout Motor’s decision to build near Columbia means every region of the state will have a major automaker.
BMW has been building vehicles near Greenville since 1994 and is investing $1.7 billion to prepare for electric vehicle manufacturing there. Volvo Cars began manufacturing vehicles at a plant near Charleston two years ago and is also planning to start converting to some electric-powered models.
McMaster said it is important to extend economic development to all areas of the state.
“This is the missing ingredient that will ignite a spark of prosperity in the Midlands,” the governor said.
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