A Chinese battery plant slated for development in the Big Rapids area appears to be putting plans on hold, at least temporarily, in a township where it was looking to locate its facility, the township supervisor said Friday.
A lawyer for Gotion Inc. contacted Big Rapids Township this week to notify the community that it would be focusing its initial efforts in neighboring Green Township instead, Big Rapids Township Supervisor Bill Stanek said.
The email from Gotion comes a little more than a week after the township board voted to have a federal review of potential national security risks associated with the Chinese-owned facility.
Chuck Thelen, vice president of Gotion Global, confirmed the email, but said the company was “moving forward with the Green Township property and still in discussion about the Big Rapids Township land.”
Stanek wouldn’t speculate on the reason for the change in plans, which was first reported by the Big Rapids Pioneer.
“They’re planning on just going into Green Township and doing that one first,” Stanek said. “Hopefully, after that, we’ve still got a chance yet.”
Gotion’s plans for the area already focused much of its development in Green Township. Under initial designs, Gotion’s footprint would include about 550 acres in Green Township and about 115 acres in Big Rapids Township in its Airport Industrial Park.
Green Township Supervisor Jim Chapman said the community at large stands to benefit from the project regardless of which side of 18 Mile Road — the dividing line between Big Rapids and Green townships — the facility is located on.
“The goal isn’t which side of that road they’re on,” Chapman said. “It never has been the goal. The goal is to bring the project to the community” to benefit economies at the local, county and regional levels.
Gotion announced plans in October for a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery parts facility on the outskirts of Big Rapids to a largely enthusiastic response from the community. The project would receive more than $800 million in incentives, including about $636 million in tax abatements over 30 years and $175 million in funding from Michigan’s business incentive program, the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund.
Gotion was founded in China in 2006, but its U.S. subsidiary has been incorporated in California since 2014. Volkswagen AG owns more than 26% of the company. Its board is one-third German, one-third American and one-third Chinese.
The company’s links to China spurred the Big Rapids Township board on Feb. 15 to request a review of the project by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a panel that reviews foreign investment in the United States for potential national security risks.
Chapman last week called the neighboring township’s request for a federal review a “snipe hunt.”
“That question comes up,” Chapman said of the company’s links to China. “But it’s a publicly traded company, and I’m really not that concerned about it. The questions are there, but the panic is not.”
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray last year warned that the Chinese government is the biggest long-term threat to the United States and other Western nations, highlighting its practices of stealing U.S. technology. In a speech in London, Wray warned that Chinese officials steal technology by using intelligence officers to “target” valuable pieces of information and companies.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com