BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — Disappointment in the twin cities following an electric vehicle battery manufacturer choosing to not locate in the area.
Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler as well as its partner Samsung announced the location for their joint operation on a $2.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant will be in Kokomo, Indiana.
With the announcement, nine months of speculation are over after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) in August leaked the twin cities as a finalist for the plant to reporters.
“The overall project would have been massive, it’s something that we definitely needed and still need actually. While we’re in the EV world we definitely want more suppliers coming in and that was a major one that’s a brand name and every household knows,” said CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council (EDC), Patrick Hoban.
On Tuesday, the company announced its intent of calling Kokomo home to Samsung’s first EV battery plant in the United States. Kokomo, Indiana is about 60 miles north of Indianapolis and 165 miles east of the Twin Cities.
It’s a $2.5 billion project that is expected to bring that area nearly 1,500 jobs.
“Just because we did not land this project doesn’t mean we couldn’t land a future expansion from Samsung, but always we’re going be in the need for suppliers going forward especially when we’re making EVs right here in our backyard,” Hoban said.
Hoban said despite this loss, growth is still happening in the Twin Cities and is optimistic that won’t slow down anytime soon.
“There’s plenty of other projects, we actually had over 100 project prospects come through last year and there’s still some finalists for those as well,” Hoban said.
Normal councilmember, Kathleen Lorenz said while it’s not ideal, Illinois and the Town of Normal aren’t alone.
“There’s 49 other states, ourselves included that’s probably sad potentially that they didn’t land this deal. Kudos to Indiana and the community of Kokomo,” Lorenz said.
Lorenz said it reaffirms how difficult and competitive economic development can be.
“We’re still in the game, we’re still in the game of economic development so you just got to move on and tomorrow’s another day,” Lorenz said.
Lorenz applauds the work of the Bloomington-Normal EDC, adding their standardized set of incentives among the taxing bodies makes the area an attractive site.
The construction of Samsung’s plant in Kokomo is expected to start later this year with the facility expected to open in early 2025.