KCRag Forum

alejandro46 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 9:47 pm Tbh tying it to capital investment is a good idea too. That way less chance of hiring people just to sit around in exchange for tax breaks.

Foxconn was a fly by night company, entering a new market directly with new products. Panasonic has established US presence, deep pockets and experienced leaders. I don’t know 100% obv, but I don’t think I’d even remotely compare to the FC cluster in WI.

Cratedigger wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:38 pm Can we rename the thread?

After being competitors for a $4 billion, 4,000-job electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility, Kansas and Oklahoma may become something else: megaproject siblings.

Panasonic Corp. picked Kansas over Oklahoma in July, choosing to put a facility in De Soto. But now the giant Japan-based company is considering putting another EV battery plant in Oklahoma that would be the De Soto facility's "twin," The Wall Street Journal reports. Sources cautioned that the state has no guarantees an agreement will be reached, the report says.

Oklahoma’s bid for the plant De Soto won appeared to hang up in part on incentives. While Kansas and De Soto were pooling potential state and local incentives topping $1.3 billion, Oklahoma struggled to complete its package. The state approved a cumulative $848 million in state and local incentives, but a $300 million tax increment financing district was subject to a referendum to put the issue on the ballot in November; as of last month, it remained in an ongoing court challenge. Earlier reports indicated that the first EV plant targeted a location in Pryor, near Tulsa.

The same forces driving the De Soto facility motivate Panasonic to add the potential Oklahoma facility: rising EV production creates greater demand for batteries. This includes Tesla, which Panasonic supplies and which has a new EV factory in Austin.

The coveted facilities mean jobs and collateral supporting jobs and development. In announcing De Soto’s selection in July, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said her state would be “the production epicenter for batteries that will power the increasing demand for EVs and a more sustainable world.”

Panasonic plans a 2.5 million-square-foot plant on 309 acres in the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, with documents including provisions for a possible second phase covering 296 acres.

The company has not confirmed a construction timeline, and the Kansas Department of Commerce redacted those details — and most others — from a copy of the company’s state incentives application, obtained via records request. De Soto TIF materials noted that demolition of existing vacant structures, site preparation and new construction for the $4 billion megaproject all could start this year and wrap up by the end of 2025.

normalthings wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:59 am Why not KS Phase 2

The Japanese company is looking at Oklahoma as the location for its new plant, though there are no guarantees that an agreement will be reached, the people said.

The new Panasonic plant would come in addition to a roughly $4 billion EV battery factory that the Japanese company said in July it planned to build in Kansas. People with knowledge of Panasonic’s plans described the two plants as twins with similar capacity.

Cratedigger wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 11:43 am I guess Panasonic is taking advantage of two generous incentive packages?