Electric vehicle battery plant to spend $1.5B more, add jobs to South Carolina facility

Joseph Bustos
·2 min read

A company that is building electric vehicle batteries for BMW is pouring an additional $1.5 billion into it planned Florence County operations.

AESC announced Tuesday that it will expand its planned Florence County operations and bring an additional 1,080 jobs to the facility.

AESC previously announced plans to build a $1.62 billion facility in Florence County, that would produce 1,620 jobs.

“We greatly value our partnership with South Carolina and Florence County as we strengthen our work together through this latest expansion that enhances our commitment to create high value jobs in the region and invest in the state,” said AESC CEO Shoichi Matsumoto. “South Carolina is a crucial part of our strategy to power next generation electric vehicles for customers across the U.S. by manufacturing high-performance, longer-range EV batteries locally.”

The expansion announced Tuesday will provide electric vehicle battery components for BMW’s assembly operations in Mexico.

AESC plans to construct a second state-of-the-art electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility adjacent to the first building, which broke ground in June, the governor’s office said in a news release. The AESC campus is being constructed at the Florence Global Technology Park.

AESC’s operations are expected to begin in 2027.

To help the expansion, South Carolina’s incentive package for the electric vehicle battery manufacturer is nearly doubling.

State officials Tuesday approved an additional $111 million incentives for the company. That money is on top of the $121 million previously approved for the company.

The state will pay for a warehouse building on land owned by Florence County, site preparation, road improvements, water system improvements and an expansion of a training center. The work is expected to take place between July of this year and December 2025.

AESC is making batteries for BMW’s Upstate plant in Spartanburg, which is carrying out a $1.7 billion transition toward making solely electric vehicles by 2030.

“This investment is another monumental win for Florence County, and we look forward to the substantial impact this will have throughout South Carolina,” Gov. Henry McMaster said.