🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Political blowback, not economics, stalled Gotion’s US$2.4 billion Michigan project

• State and local support for Gotion’s Michigan battery plant fell away after fierce local opposition helped stall the project 1.
• Critics focused on the company’s alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, China’s ruling political party. That fueled national security fears and voters recalled local officials who backed the plan 2.
• Gotion moved ahead with a separate US$2 billion factory in Illinois through a local outreach push. It sponsored community events and flew local leaders to its facilities in China 1.
• Illinois granted US$536 million in state incentives. By early 2025, two energy storage battery production lines were running, which means Gotion can move forward in the US when it handles local politics well 1.

Gotion is placing factories abroad to protect its supply chain

• Expansion into Slovakia and Morocco works as a buffer against US-China trade tension. Factories inside those markets can serve customers such as Volkswagen and cut tariff risk 1.
• In Slovakia, Gotion teamed up with battery company InoBat in a joint venture, a business owned by two partners. Slovakia approved 214 million euros (US$232 million) in state aid, including subsidies and tax breaks, which anchors the project in the European Union market 3.
• The Morocco factory will be built by a wholly owned subsidiary. Morocco’s free trade agreements with the US and the European Union could help turn the site into an export hub 4.
• Gotion may expand Moroccan capacity to 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh), a measure of battery output. That would make the plant a long-term base for Western markets from outside China 4.