A planned electric-truck battery plant could soon get $350 million in state taxpayer funds for a facility in Marshall County, Miss., after Gov. Tate Reeves called for a legislative special session on Thursday to tackle the project.
The Chickasaw Industrial Park, which is in Byhalia, Miss., near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line, could soon host the state’s “largest payroll commitment” and its second-largest economic development project with a “corporate capital investment” of $1.9 billion, Reeves said at a press conference Tuesday.
“This economic development project involves the production and delivery of electric battery cells for use in the commercial automotive and industrial application space,” he said at a Tuesday morning press conference in Jackson, Miss. “It will further enshrine Mississippi as a national leader in the automotive industry.”
None of the land involved in the deal is located in Tennessee, Reeves said, but some employees may live in Tennessee and decide to move to Mississippi after seeing the state’s prospects.
Reeves did not disclose the name of the facility nor the entity behind the investment but the Daily Memphian reported on Tuesday that PACCAR, Cummins Inc. and Daimler Truck made the business proposal. The companies said in September 2023 that they planned to invest in a $2 to $3 billion facility that makes batteries for electric trucks and 18-wheelers. The governor emphasized that state officials, the Mississippi Development Authority and the Marshall County Board of Supervisors have worked with the three companies for several months to reach an agreement.
Reeves estimated that the project would create 2,000 jobs with an average salary of $66,000, but did not say what the median salary would be. (Median salary is more indicative of what a typical worker makes since a few highly paid administrators can inflate an average). He said he will ask the Legislature to set aside $350 million for the project, with half the money directly funding the business itself and the other half paying for the facility’s infrastructure on 500 acres. The State’s general fund should have about $650 million as of June 30, 2024, he said.
At the press conference, House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who serves as the Senate president, both said they felt confident that the Legislature would approve the deal.
“I think this is probably a start of what’s going to continue to be more and more development in the State of Mississippi because we have the best place in the country to bring your business,” Hosemann said.
