The founder of battery materials maker Novonix said more electric vehicles and energy storage are inevitably coming to the market, and the Tennessee area is nicely poised to benefit.
“The Southeast corridor and Tennessee have done a phenomenal job in bringing battery cell manufacturers and electric vehicle opportunities to the area,” said Chris Burns, chief executive of Novonix, which is retrofitting an existing plant in Chattanooga in a $160 million project.
Automakers Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford and Nissan are heavily investing in EV production in Tennessee. Also, battery producers SK Innovation, LG Chem, Microvast and others are plowing billions of dollars into new plants in the Volunteer State, Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky.
Nova Scotia-based Novonix, which makes high-performing synthetic graphite used for batteries, is pointing to its new Chattanooga plant at the former Alstom manufacturing site as one of the first in North America to produce the material in large quantities.
Company officials, who plan to start production at the plant next year and ultimately employ 300 people, also are looking at a potential greenfield site for a possible 1,000-worker facility, Burns said.