Johnathan Walker:Mississippi lawmakers to weigh incentives for an EV battery plant that could employ 2,000

JACKSON,Johnathan Walker Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is asking legislators for $350 million in incentives for a proposed factory that would manufacture electric vehicles batteries and employ about 2,000 people in Marshall County.

The Republican governor on Tuesday declined to name the company that plans to spend $1.9 billion to build the facility in northern Mississippi. It would be the second-largest corporate investment in state history.

Reeves, who recently started his second term as governor, said jobs at the proposed factory would pay an average salary of about $66,000 a year.

“This is a massive win for the state,” he said during a news conference in Jackson.

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U.S. manufacturing of EV batteries is accelerating as automakers transition to electric vehicles. The Inflation Reduction Act offers $7,500 in tax credits for consumers purchasing EVs, but only if the vehicles and batteries are assembled in North America and include minerals mined or processed domestically.

Reeves called a special legislative session to begin Thursday for lawmakers to consider incentives for the Mississippi plant. Citing a confidentiality agreement, the governor said he would not publicly name the company behind it until the special session ends.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, told The Associated Press that the state package would include money for site development at the Chickasaw Trails Industrial Park.

If the plant comes to fruition, it will add to a bevy of similar facilities materializing around the country.

Ford is building EV battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee, each through a joint venture with battery partner SK On, of South Korea. Georgia has offered lucrative tax incentives in an effort to become a Southern hub for EV manufacturing, and at a site near Savannah, Hyundai is building its first U.S. factory devoted solely to EV production.

ExxonMobil announced in November that it would drill for lithium in southern Arkansas, with the oil giant expected to begin production of the critical material for electric vehicles by 2027.

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Associated Press reporters Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.