Michigan city fails to block Chinese electric vehicle factory

A rural Michigan community lost its attempt to stop a major battery manufacturer from electric vehicles build a factory in Michigan, a state that has welcomed chinese investment during decades.

Gotion Inc. had established a development agreement with the Green Charter Township board of directors. U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, in a preliminary injunction Friday, ruled that the township’s agreement with Gotion remains valid.

Chuck Thelen, Gotion’s vice president of manufacturing in North America, told The Detroit News that Gotion is ready to work with the municipality “to move the project forward.”

However, the board members who approved the deal have now been ousted from their positions and replaced by anti-Gotions.

“We are disappointed at this time,” Green Charter Township Supervisor Jason Kruse told The Detroit News, adding that there has been no decision on whether to file an appeal.

Gotion’s agreement with the municipality will create 2,350 jobs generated by a $2.34 billion investment that many see as a way to secure the economic future of the municipality, a rural enclave just over three hours’ drive northwest of Detroit , the center of the automotive industry. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials support the deal.

Township residents oppose a U.S. company with Chinese affiliations locating within about 100 miles of a National Guard base, a mistrust that reflects the current state of U.S.-China relations, and suspicions that the Party Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will have an office at the plant, a rumor Thelen denied last year at a meeting at a local high school.

In June, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign investments for national security risks, concluded that Gotion’s purchase of land for a vehicle battery plant electrical was not a safety issue.

On Aug. 1, Gotion, the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese battery company Gotion High Tech Co. Ltd., received approval from Green Charter Township to establish a plant.

Gotion sued after the new township board rescinded an agreement that would extend water to the city of Big Rapids factory site and also voted to withdraw support for the project.

Last year, residents also raised concerns about the 715,000 gallons a day of water the plant would use in manufacturing to produce cathodes and anodes for electric vehicle batteries.

“The water we use doesn’t even come into contact with the materials we process. If you wet these materials, you destroy them,” Thelen said at that meeting at the local high school, according to a news report. “So no, we are not going to pump materials, minerals or chemicals into the water.”

Green Charter Township is a self-governing entity of 3,000 people within the city of Big Rapids, Michigan. The median household income for the township is 53,882, according to 2020 US Census data, which is lower than the Michigan median income of 64,392 and the US national income of 76,521.

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