Work begins on $322m electric vehicle battery factory in Michigan

The first phase of the facility will see a 400,000 square foot production plant built, starting up in 2012

Construction work officially began yesterday for a new manufacturing facility in Michigan, which will produce batteries for electric vehicles.

Vice President Joe Biden and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm attended a ground breaking ceremony to celebrate the start of work at the advanced battery facility in Midland.
The facility is being build by Dow Kokam, a joint venture between the Dow Chemical Company and battery specialist TK Advanced Battery.
When complete, the 800,000 square foot facility is set to build 1.2 billion watt-hours of lithium-ion batteries each year – enough batteries for 60,000 fully electric of hybrid vehicles a year.
The facility is being built in two phases, with the first $322 million phase supported by a $161 million federal grant from the Recovery Act.
Some 320 jobs will be created by the first phase, set to begin operations by 2012, while the completed plant is expected to require nearly 800 workers from 2015.

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