VinFast wants to open a $6.5 billion electric vehicle battery factory in North Carolina, creating jobs for 13,000 people
Triangle Innovation Point Industrial Park
The factory is located in the manufacturing industrial park Triangle Innovation Point in the town of Chatham, in the area of the Key Research Triangle of North Carolina, where the state’s high-tech research and development focus was established in 1959. Located in the area are the three major state universities of technology, North Carolina State University, Duke University and University of North Carolina.
After completion, the economic development project will receive incentives from industrial park landowners and a support package from the state of North Carolina. Previously, this area was also in the calculation of building a factory of large electronic chip manufacturer Micron Technology. However, Micron abandoned its project after failing to negotiate the large support package it wanted.
Vinfast has not yet commented. Vinfast is the first car company in Vietnam to expand into EV battery production, and has publicly announced its plan to produce vehicles in the US by 2024. Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong’s car brand has cooperated with other brands. Big brands like BWM to design their models and have targeted the US car market, after announcing the opening of its first headquarters in Los Angeles last November. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, the company also introduced a range of its electric vehicles. Last year, Vinfast also considered an initial public offering of shares through an empty company (SPAC).
Michael Smith, chairman of Chatham Economic Development Group, declined to comment to confirm Vinfast’s plan to build a factory in Chatham town. He just shared that two large local industrial parks – Triagle Innovation Point and Chatham-Siller City Advanced Manufacturing – have attracted a lot of interest from parties.”
According to Bruce Thompson, a local Apple project negotiator, North Carolina’s Triangle area has become an attractive investment destination since the Toyota joint venture chose the Greensboro – Randolph industrial park in this state as the location. Points for your fuel cell plant to enter.
Since then, “North Carolina has become the go-to destination for the EV battery market supply chain.” Previously, it was also because of a lack of supply chain that North Carolina lost many projects to states like Alabama and Georgia. When North Carolina missed out on a Toyot-Mazda factory project in 2018, current Commerce Secretary Tony Copeland blamed an existing supply chain in Alabama for the decision. However, Toyota’s battery factory helped change the game.
According to Thompson, the state has enough human resources to meet big projects, coming from the community college system, universities in the area as well as migrant workers.
John Skavarla, North Carolina’s former secretary of commerce, said he was not surprised that the state attracted many large-scale industrial projects.
Recruiting and retaining people is a problem everywhere, he says, but the proactive move by the North Carolina government to bolster its workforce with its higher education and graduate education systems has set the state apart. chief.
The state’s major industrial parks are also living up to expectations years ago after county governments began investing in the area’s facilities. The state of North Carolina has a special advantage with high-tech EV battery projects thanks to the technological potential of the Triangle area. The Triangle area can provide high-tech engineers capable of running high-end research projects. Some community colleges are also expected to play a large role in bringing in a workforce of 13,000 people.
Christopher Chung, CEO of North Carolina Economic Development Cooperation, said that high-tech manufacturers targeting the state’s large industrial zones also often consider building R&D institutes in the country. Triangle.
Previously, Chung said that the state was aiming for a total of 241 local expansion and construction projects, of which electric vehicle-related projects accounted for a large proportion. Ryan Regan, deputy general manager for economic development at the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, recently suggested that half the region’s potential is for EV battery projects. Before VinFast, giants like Micron, Intel, Rivian and Ford considered opening big projects in this Triangle area.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: genk.vn – Read the original article here
