It helped sway Ford to build BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, though the planned $3.5 billion, 2,500-job project was reduced to $2.2 billion and 1,700 jobs in response to less EV demand than expected. Capacity was cut more than 40% to 20 gigawatt hours, meaning annual battery cell output will drop from enough for 400,000 vehicles per year to about 230,000.
The MEDC has said it would discuss with Ford a reduction of incentives, but officials have been mum about it since. Other high-profile EV projects that received large taxpayer-funded subsidies are also in jeopardy due to market conditions, including for Novi-based Our Next Energy.
The Mundy site has a lot of advantages, including Class A roads and proximity to three freeways, an airport, a railroad and talent from three nearby colleges. One of its most appealing characteristics is water infrastructure capable of providing up to 85 million gallons daily.
Another big draw is that it has been pegged for industrial development for five years, which could theoretically protect the project from local attempts to block it. Still, groups such as the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance of Michigan have formed to protest the development.
Local opposition to large-scale development has become a pattern in Michigan, where groups have opposed the Ford plant in Marshall and Chinese EV battery manufacturer Gotion near Big Rapids.
Christin Armstrong, senior vice president of business development at MEDC, said last month that Mundy Township established the property as a manufacturing district in 2019, which predates MEDC involvement and the announcements of large-scale developments that sparked community pushback.
“I think by nature that you have community buy-in through that process as it were through their elected officials,” Armstrong said last month during a call with reporters. “Also, this project doesn’t fundamentally change the character of the area. There’s a lot of industrial mixed-use already in this area, so that’s another key factor why you see less opposition to the site.”
