At first glance, it looks like Michigan is doing well in the competition to attract new employment centers in the vehicle industry. Stellentis invested more than $3 billion to renovate the old Jefferson North Plant and build a new one to assemble the three bench Jeep Cheroke. GM devoted more than $2 to renovate the Hamtramck Assembly plant for production of electric trucks. Ford has not only renovated the Michigan Central station to serve as a technical center but invested in a renovation of River Rouge and a new battery plant in this area.
However, there are other major investments:
Toyota is investing $1.29 billion in a battery plant in Randolph County North Carolina
Vinfast - the Vietnamese vehicle producer - will invest $5 in a new assembly plant in Chatham County North Carolina
Hyundai will invest $5.5 billion in a new plant in Bryan County Georgia
Rivian - if they stay solvent - will invest $5 billion in a new plant in Bryan County Georgai
SKInnovation [[from Korea) and Ford will invest $11.4 billion in two new plants to produce batteries in:
Hardin County Kentucky and Haywood County Tennessee
President Reagan helped to shift the vehicle industry to the South when he successfully imposed a limit on the number
of Japanese vehicles that could be imported to the USA.
The Japanese firms almost immediately decided to build cars in the USA. I spoke with a person who dealt with Toyoto
about sites in the USA. Apparently the ideal site was in a state where there was no history of unionization, where
the state legislatures was not at all sympathetic to union and the site should have a relatively small African American population. The ideal locations were in the Appalachia stretch from the western sections of the Carolina across to northern Mississippi.
Perhaps today's criteria have more to do with what tax incentives a state can provide. Michigan has been a right to work state for quite some time and the state's unions no
longer have special clout in the legislature.
Will Michigan be able to attract a larger share of the huge capital investments now being made by the dozen or so firms who hope to enter the US market or build batteries?
Bookmarks