Just four months after announcing the expansion of its electric vehicle battery production facility under construction in Florence County, SC, battery technology manufacturer AESC has announced plans to build a second facility in same campus of the 500-acre industrial park.
Announcing the company in December 2022, AESC broke ground last June at the Florence Global Technology and Commerce Park on the $810 million, 1.5 million square foot initial manufacturing facility, which will supply cell battery cells for new generation electric vehicles produced by BMW. Spartanburg, SC, assembly plant. Just six months into construction and a year after the initial announcement, AESC unveiled plans to double the size of the project to ensure adequate production capacity when operations begin in 2026.
In March it announced the second expansion, a $1.5 billion plant that will expand AESC’s partnership with BMW, providing electric vehicle battery components for the automaker’s assembly operations in Mexico. Scheduled to open in 2027, the additional project increases AESC’s total investment in Florence County to more than $3.1 billion.
Clayco’s Greenville, SC office and Lamar Johnson Collaborative are providing design and construction services for the initial project, which ranked 20th in ENR Southeast’s Top Starts 2023 with a construction cost of $405 million dollars
According to the AESC, the new manufacturing plants will be powered entirely by clean energy. The company adds that it is increasingly relying on recycled materials, which will lead to an overall reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from cell production.
The expansion follows state approval to issue an additional $111 million in general economic development bonds to support the costs of a county-owned warehouse building, site preparation, road improvements and on- and off-site infrastructure and expansion of the training center that will serve. both manufacturing facilities.
