A hefty tax incentive package has lured a Chinese-based battery manufacturer to Illinois.
Gotion has announced it will build a $2 billion lithium battery manufacturing plant in the community of Manteno in Kankakee County.
Gotion’s total incentive package from the state of Illinois and local governments, which includes Reimagining Energy and Vehicles Act, Invest in Illinois and other incentives, is valued at $536 million.
A similar proposal by Gotion to also seek taxpayer funding for a new plant in Michigan has been met with widespread opposition in part because of concerns about Gotion’s connections to the Peoples Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
The company is the fifth to make a deal with the state of Illinois under the two-year-old REV program. The Gotion facility will make lithium battery cells and battery packs used in electric vehicles.
“Those batteries will be built by more than 2,600 full time Illinois workers, bringing not just new jobs but also economic development and opportunity to the residents of this region,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.