The city council in Lansing, Michigan has unanimously approved a motion to grant tax-free status to a 529-acre plot of land that General Motors is considering constructing a new battery plant on.
According to Automotive News, this motion will make the land mostly tax-free for 18 years. The council also approved an agreement to annex the property into the city of Lansing this week for tax purposes, as the plot of land is technically located in nearby Delta Township.
Bob Trezise, CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, a local business improvement coalition, told Automotive News that construction of the new General Motors battery plant could begin as early as next year, but the automaker has still yet to make a final decision on if it will build the facility in Lansing. “As a total disclaimer, this could all be for naught,” he told the publication.
Interior of a GM battery plant
The Michigan Legislature also said this month it was working on ways to help attract new investment after Ford skipped over its home state to build new multi-billion dollar plants in Kentucky and Tennessee instead. This includes pre-approved tax incentive schemes for local municipalities such as Lansing and Delta Township.
General Motors filed an application with the city of Lansing to secure tax-exempt zoning for the project last week. The application indicated the project would cost “up to or more than,” $2.5 billion and would create roughly 750 full-time jobs when completed at the end of 2025. The records also indicate the number of employees at the plant could swell to 1,700 people once it reaches full production capacity.
GM Lansing Delta Township plant exterior
The proposed Lansing battery plant would be close by the GM Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant, which currently builds the Chevy Camaro, along with the Cadillac CT4 and Cadillac CT5. This plant could therefore be poised to build battery-electric vehicles at some point in the future, with GM president Mark Reuss saying previously that it would ideally build battery plants nearby vehicle plants to reduce shipping costs.
GM spokesman Dan Flores acknowledged the automaker was “developing business cases for potential future investments in Michigan,” earlier this week, but said the company still has nothing official to announce at this time.
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Comments
GM has to thread the needle. They can’t stake the industry on $50,000 vehicles. They also can’t expect to sell millions of $30,000 Bolts. They have to get the $50,000 EVs down to $30,000 in a year or two if they are going to succeed. They might pull it off, but it’s not a job I’d want to be in charge of.
GM has already stated a $30k Equinox EV is on the way in the next 1-2 years. That will undercut all other EVs on the road with the exception of the Leaf.
$30K equinox is coming in early 2023, hopefully we see it at CES, I just hope GM does it right, makes it efficient and spirited. If so, say goodnight to the Bolt…
This is a incredible waste of Virgin green space. Just a couple miles east of this plant is a vast concrete wasteland that used to be a GM metalfab complex. Why not re-purpose the brownfield, if you’re gonna brag about being green.
Just to be be clear, GM actually builds the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave at the Delta Township plant. The Camaro, CT4 and CT5, mentioned in this article, are built at the Lansing Grand River plant a few miles away.
LDT will be ICE until 2027 or so, LGR will be the next major plant to change over to BEV once Camaro ends, and CT4, and CT5 will not be far behind
Orion is going to become the second plant for BT1 vehicles, and the Equinox BEV will be built in Mexico.
I am also closely watching Wentzville, as I expect some EV news there in the next bit. GM has been doing a lot of work on that plant, new body shop, new paint shop, etc… Something big is going to be announced there I think, pure speculation, but I think we will see a new BEV van…
I just hope The Lansing Grand River still builds cars till they get the new battery plant built. It would be bad to idea it till the new plant is built.
They can always get batteries from another plant until the new one is ready.
More tax breaks to a giant corporation, oh America, SMH.
The people who live there should be able to vote on this. Crazy politicians get to decide who gets tax breaks, and of course they give them to big greedy companies what a disgrace.
Delta Township does not build the Camaro. That is built at Lansing Grand River Assembly.