TOPEKA, Kan. - Japan’s Panasonic Corp. selected Kansas as the location for a multibillion-dollar mega-factory to produce electric vehicle batteries for Tesla and other carmakers, Gov.
Laura Kelly announced Wednesday.The decision comes five months after the Democratic governor and Republican-controlled Legislature rushed to approve a taxpayer-funded incentive package of as much as $1 billion, the state’s largest ever, to attract the company and the promised "thousands of jobs," even though most of them didn’t know what company was in play.
Kelly said Wednesday that the actual incentives will total $829 million over 10 years.The plant will be located in De Soto, Kansas, a town with about 6,000 people and 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri."People across the country are looking at Kansas as a leader in economic development," Kelly told a gathering of about 250 state officials and business leaders in downtown Topeka Wednesday.Japanese broadcaster NHK reported this year that the company was looking to build the factory in Kansas or Oklahoma, close to Texas, where Tesla is building an electric-vehicle plant.
The two companies jointly operate a battery plant in Nevada.FILE - A worker is busy at a battery assembly workshop at Panasonic Energy Wuxi Co.