{"id":1004666876,"date":"2023-06-08T02:53:41","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T10:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004666876"},"modified":"2023-06-08T04:19:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T12:19:09","slug":"japanese-battery-maker-breaks-ground-on-810m-gigafactory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/japanese-battery-maker-breaks-ground-on-810m-gigafactory\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Battery Maker Breaks Ground on $810M Gigafactory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"EV<\/a>

Image by PhonlamaiPhoto\/iStockphoto.com<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

AESC<\/strong>, a major Japanese manufacturer of batteries, including those for electric vehicles, has broken ground on a 1.5 million-square-foot, 30 GWh battery cell gigafactory in Florence County, S.C.<\/p>\n

The manufacturer\u2019s total investment will be $810 million, a spokesperson for Florence County Economic<\/strong> Development<\/strong> told Commercial Property Executive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The construction address for the greenfield site is 1300 Estate Road. The spokesperson said a new boulevard road will be constructed off Highway 327, roughly 2 miles to the east of the site, to provide access to the property.<\/p>\n

Of potential relevance is that the location is only about a mile from both Florence Regional Airport and the CSX Florence Division rail yard.<\/p>\n

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READ ALSO<\/strong>: Electric Vehicles Put a Charge in Industrial Growth<\/a><\/p>\n

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Operations at the plant are expected to start in 2026 and to create 1,170 new jobs for the community.<\/p>\n

The new 30 GWh battery plant extends AESC\u2019s battery manufacturing network, which includes a plant in operation in Tennessee and another plant under construction in Kentucky. All together and on completion, AESC\u2019s U.S. plants will provide up to 70 GWh capacity annually.<\/p>\n

The Florence facility will also support AESC\u2019s multi-year partnership with BMW Group<\/strong>. Under the October 2022 agreement, AESC will supply battery cells for next-generation EV models produced at BMW\u2019s Spartanburg plant.<\/p>\n

AESC (formerly Envision AESC) is a Japan-headquartered global battery technology company engaged in the research, development, design, manufacturing and sale of power batteries for EVs and energy storage systems. In 2022, AESC was again named among the \u201cGlobal Tier 1 Battery Companies\u201d by Benchmark<\/strong>, a leading U.K.-based lithium-ion battery supply chain research organization.<\/p>\n

Battery boom<\/h2>\n

The EV battery sector has been growing like crazy across the U.S. in recent months\u2014and especially in the Sun Belt. Just since May 1:<\/p>\n