Fortescue CEO: Detroit is ‘best place’ for new $210M EV battery factory, 600 jobs
Great news for the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood.
Fortescue CEO: Detroit is ‘best place’ for new $210M EV battery factory, 600 jobs
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Quote:
A global mining and green energy company is looking to breathe new life into a vacant industrial building in Detroit with plans to invest up to $210 million and create up to 600 new jobs.
Fortescue WAE received approval of $12.7 million in state incentives Tuesday to support an electric vehicle battery systems factory in the city’s Milwaukee Junction district, next to the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum marking the birthplace of Ford Motor Co.’s Model T. CEO Judith Judson told Crain’s that plugging into the historical epicenter of automotive made sense for the company’s first U.S. plant.“We see so much opportunity in the U.S., and when we look at Michigan specifically, it really comes down to it’s an extremely attractive place to manufacture, there’s a highly skilled workforce both in manufacturing and in engineering,” said Judson, who earned her mechanical engineering degree from Kettering University in Flint before taking a co-op role with General Motors Co.
“I understand and really know the value Michigan has for producing and supplying to the automotive industry.”
Fortescue, based near London since its acquisition of WAE in 2022, has ambitions to get the battery factory off the ground quickly. It aims to start construction at the brownfield site this year with the goal of going into production mid-next year with the first battery assembly line, according to a Michigan Economic Development Corp. briefing memo.
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