< Previous36 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION Ford Motor paused work on its EV plant in Michigan in September 2023 amid tepid sales forecasts and an autoworkers strike. But work on the project resumed in November albeit at a smaller scale. Speedbumps and detours have long been part of the U.S. automotive industry, and they can certainly be expected as the sector transitions to electric power. Meanwhile, in Bryan County, near Savannah, Georgia, Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America expects to begin production in early 2025 at its Metaplant — a complex for the manufacture of EVs and the batteries to power them. In October 2023, the company celebrated the one-year anniversary of the project’s groundbreaking. In August that year, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution announced they would invest an additional $2 billion in its battery cell manufacturing facility at the Metaplant, bringing the JV’s total investment there to more than $4.3 billion. Combined with the EV production operation, that brings capital investment in the Metaplant to more than $7.5 billion, with 8,500 jobs expected to be created over the next eight years. (See Top Deals on p. 84 of this issue.) “In collaboration with our trusted partner Hyundai Motor Group, this investment underscores our dedication to driving America’s EV transition while bolstering the local economy through the creation of quality jobs,” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and company and state leaders celebrated Hyundai Motor Group’s positive impact on the state during Hyundai Day at the State Capitol, Feb. 26, 2024, when the company announced it was ahead of schedule and moving up the start date of its $7.59 billion, 8,500-job Metaplant to the fourth quarter of 2024. Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor America38 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION said Dong-Myung Kim, president and head of the Advanced Automotive Battery Division of LG Energy Solution, at the JV’s announcement. “Thanks to the support from the State of Georgia, we are excited to bring in our top-quality products and storied operational experience to grow together with its communities.” According to a Hyundai Motor Group release the “30 GWh facility will be able to support the production of 300,000 units of EVs annually at full operations. Hyundai Mobis will assemble battery packs using cells from the plant, then supply them to the Hyundai Motor Group’s U.S. manufacturing facilities for production of Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis EV models.” In April, Hyundai signed a 15-year agreement with Matrix Renewables, based in Spain, to purchase 147 MW of energy from Matrix’s Stillhouse Solar Project in Bell County, Texas. The agreement will supply energy to the Bran County Metaplant and other Hyundai facilities in the U.S. How One Company Is Meeting the Metals Challenge As EV plants open and ramp up production in the U.S. and globally, battery metals projects are working to meet booming demand for lithium, nickel, graphite and other metals required for EV batteries. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecasted in 2022 the need for nearly 400 new mines by 2035 to meet demand. Facilities for processing the metals also will be required, which can be an economic boon to the communities that win them. Chester County, South Carolina, for example, is the site of a $1.3 billion lithium hydroxide Mega-Flex facility announced in 2023 by Charlotte, North Carolina–based Albemarle Corporation that the company says will create 300 jobs. The company says Mega-Flex refers to “the facility’s ability to process diverse lithium feedstock, including lithium from recycled batteries. Albemarle expects the facility to annually produce approximately 50,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from multiple sources, with the potential to expand up to 100,000 metric tons. Production at the facility would support the manufacturing of an estimated 2.4 million electric vehicles annually.” “This facility will help increase the production of U.S.-based lithium resources to fuel the clean energy revolution while bringing us closer to our customers as the supply chain is built out in North America,” said Albemarle CEO Kent Masters, announcing the Palmetto State project. Also in 2023, Albemarle signed an agreement with Ford Motor Corporation to supply the OEM with battery-grade lithium hydroxide for its EV production. Keeping such supply-chain components in the U.S. is increasingly important to Albemarle’s customers, noted Eric Norris, president of Albemarle Energy Storage. “With the growing demand for EVs in the United States,” he explained at the agreement signing, “our customers are seeking to regionalize their supply chain for greater security, sustainability and lower costs. This agreement exemplifies the industry collaborations and investments required.” The two companies also plan to collaborate on developing a closed-loop solution for lithium-ion battery recycling. Albemarle also is active in metal mining. It secured a $90 million Department of Defense grant for mining equipment to be used with the reopening of its lithium mine in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. The company says the mine has a rare hard rock lithium deposit and will support production of more than 1 million EVs annually.40 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION I n January, Atlanta-based Cox Automotive, a leading automotive services and technology provider, released its Forecast: 2024. It suggests five themes to watch in the U.S. automotive industry as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes further into the past (see infographic). “A decade from now, when we look back at the years immediately following the global pandemic of 2020, we’ll be awed by the dramatic swings and unprecedented circumstances the economy and auto market endured,” said Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. “To name a few, we saw historic appreciation in vehicle values, unimagined drops in supply, and interest rates moving from all-time lows to 23-year highs at an unforgiving pace. The past four years have been chaotic, even by auto industry standards, and have shifted many normal seasonal patterns out of whack, which adds to the difficulty of forecasting what comes next.” WHAT COMES NEXT?More German Investment in Ohio German automotive supplier Schaeffler is expanding its footprint in Ohio with a new facility for making automotive electric mobility solutions, including electric axles for light- and medium-duty vehicles. It’s investing $230 million in a greenfield facility in Dover that will create 450 jobs and has other investments planned for the state through 2032. The company says the new manufacturing facility location is in the proximity of Schaeffler’s customers, major automotive OEMs, strategic suppliers, rail, access to highways and to the company’s Wooster facility, which specializes in the manufacturing of transmission systems and serves as an innovation hub for automotive electric mobility. Schaeffler recently expanded the Wooster plant by nearly 90,000 sq. ft. to produce electric motors and components for powertrain systems. It’s also working with The Ohio State University to open a battery cell R&D center set to open in 2025. In addition to Ohio, the company has manufacturing operations in Connecticut, South Carolina and Missouri. SITE SELECTION MAY 2024 4142 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION Biotech Startups Get a LIFT in North Dakota Sometimes health tech firms need a helping hand. In Fargo, they find one. W hen Tony Hyk and his team at TheraTec were developing the technology behind their remote sensor and mobile app for physical therapy patients, one conversation changed the trajectory of their company. “I was talking to an angel group in Rapid City, South Dakota,” says Hyk, CEO of TheraTec. “I learned about a medical company that received LIFT funds to hire people in North Dakota.” LIFT stands for Legacy Investment for Technology Loan Fund. The North Dakota Department of Commerce describes this initiative as “an innovation loan fund that supports technology advancement by providing financing for commercialization of intellectual property within the state of North Dakota.” Hyk saw this as an opportunity to grow his firm. “We applied for the LIFT program. They gave us a million dollars,” he says. “I decided to make North Dakota our home.” A medical software firm that specializes in musculoskeletal rehabilitation, TheraTec was awarded $1 million to establish a North Dakota office and hire local workers. The North Dakota Department of Commerce works with the Bank of North Dakota to manage and administer the LIFT loan fund. For TheraTec, that means leaving Minneapolis, crossing the state line into North Dakota, a state of just 780,000 people, and setting up shop in Horace, a suburb in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area. Hyk says it’s the best move they could have made. “My experience has been phenomenal,” he says. “We moved our headquarters, and our wearable sensor will be manufactured in North Dakota too. The personal income tax is next to nothing in North Dakota. In Minnesota, they absolutely gouge you. With the costs that Minnesota puts on you, the businesses in Minnesota thrive despite the government.” Those are strong words about an area widely known by RON STARNER ron.starner@siteselection.com HEALTH TECH & LIFE SCIENCES CENTERS This photo of a hiker in the McKenzie County badlands made by Sierrah Fischer, titled “A Break Among the Clouds,” won the Badlands Scenery category in the 2020 Governor’s Photo Contest in North Dakota. Photo courtesy of North Dakota Department of Commerce44 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION as a medical device capital. But Hyk says North Dakota won him over not just with the LIFT loan, but also with its people. “The people who work here in the oil and soil industries absolutely translate to our industry,” he says. “The schools churn out great workers. There is a genuineness to the people in North Dakota. I am now three for three on my hires in North Dakota, and they are all based in the Fargo area. We will stay here.” Still Building a Biotech Ecosystem Hyk says TheraTec will have no trouble finding qualified graduates from the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University and South Dakota State University. “It is possible for the medical device sector to expand from Minnesota into the Dakotas,” he says. “Some pieces are missing here, but they can address that. We need more of an ecosystem for regulatory, legal, etc. Those exist in Minneapolis but not here yet.” What he likes, though, is the fact that “North Dakota turns out top-quality engineers. They graduate and leave the area. They go to work at Google or move to Seattle or the Twin Cities. They don’t stick around. They don’t want to leave home, but they have to in order to find good jobs.” If Hyk wants to change that, he has help. Another firm that’s all in on North Dakota is Safetyspect, a biotech company that provides the world’s only optical system to detect and disinfect in seconds contamination that is invisible to the naked human eye. Safetyspect got its start in North Dakota when it qualified to receive a $1.5 million grant from the North Dakota Department of Agriculture. The grant in 2021 prompted the firm to relocate from Los Angeles to Grand Forks, North Dakota. “We are an imaging company,” Ken Barton is the CEO of Safetyspect, a biotech company that is bringing detection and decontamination to the microbial level. Photo courtesy of Safetyspect SITE SELECTION MAY 2024 45 Safetyspect CEO Ken Barton says. “All matter at the molecular level will refl ect photons . We create optical signatures for what is invisible to the human eye. Our fi rst commercial device comes out this year. We have sold units to the U.S. Army. Our offi ces are on campus at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.” Barton says his fi rm works closely with researchers at UND and other universities across the U.S. and abroad. “We work with groups in Australia, Brazil and Spain,” he says. “We are doing our manufacturing in North Dakota through ComDel Innovation in Wahpeton. at is about minutes south of Fargo, but our headquarters will remain in Grand Forks.” Why North Dakota? “We were in the L.A. area when COVID- hit. My chief technology offi cer had earned his Ph.D. at Simon Frazier University,” says Barton. “He and the UND biomedical engineering chief had been roommates in Canada. We learned then that North Dakota had CARES Act funds. We were able to qualify for $. million to develop technology to detect an enzyme in human saliva through respiratory droplets that are invisible to the naked eye.” He adds that “our experience in North Dakota has been very good. e people here are fantastic. ey are hardworking. is has been a great environment for us.” “If you look at the Twin Cities, it is like the Silicon Valley of medical device tech,” says Josh Teigen, commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Commerce. “We are seeing a huge shift in biotech companies fl owing from Minnesota over the border to North Dakota.” A few factors drive this trend, he adds: North Dakota’s friendlier tax and regulatory environment; its quicker and easier path to decision-makers at the highest levels of government; and the presence of two highly regarded engineering schools. “ e cost savings here is massive both on the individual income tax side and the corporate income tax side,” says Teigen. “ e path to decision-makers in a small state like ours is so much faster. If you want to get the governor on the phone, he is just one quick text message away. We have a desire to get projects going and across the fi nish line.” Next >