by WILL FOLKS
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It’s been seventeen months since Japanese-owned electric vehicle battery manufacturer AESC announced it was “pausing” construction on its $1.6 billion manufacturing plant in Florence, South Carolina. This heavily taxpayer-subsidized facility – which was supposed to employ an estimated 1,620 people – was more than 75% complete at the time of the shocking announcement.
“AESC has informed the state of South Carolina and our local partners that due to policy and market uncertainty, we are pausing construction at our South Carolina facility at this time,” the company announced last June. “We anticipate being able to resume construction once circumstances stabilize.”
In December 2025, the company provided a similarly opaque update on the status of the plant.
“The project remains paused at the moment, but we are in active discussions to restart the project as soon as possible,” a company representative said at the time. “We remain fully committed to delivering 1,600 jobs in the region and over $1.6 billion in direct investment.”
Fast forward to July of this year, when company officials regurgitated that statement – without elaboration – as local taxpayers sunk another $4.1 million into massive water and sewer upgrades at the 1.5 million-square foot facility.
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Local “economic developers” insisted the investment was necessary no matter what befalls the massive industrial site… language not-so-subtly implying the battery plant might not be happening.
AESC was hailed by governor Henry McMaster in 2023 for the “transformative impact” it was going to have on the region.
“South Carolina is proud to celebrate AESC as the company embarks on a historic chapter in our state,” McMaster said at the time. “Florence County has been ripe for an investment of this magnitude — one that will transform local communities and create generational wealth for South Carolinians. The groundbreaking for AESC’s battery cell gigafactory is a landmark moment in the evolution of South Carolina’s rapidly expanding electric vehicle industry.”
Was it, though? Or has AESC become the latest in a long line of command economic debacles…
McMaster and Palmetto politicians bet big on this company, with state taxpayers shelling out more than $255 million in initial subsidies in 2022 (not counting recurring job development tax credits). Local subsidies pushed the tab for the facility even higher – to more than $400 million. An additional $111 million was earmarked for a second AESC facility, but that project was later folded into the first plant.
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RELATED | McMASTER RESTORES CRONY CAPITALIST BAILOUT
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That’s half a billion dollars, people… with the tab still running.
AESC intended to supply batteries directly to German automaker BMW, which is building its new fully electric iX5 at its Spartanburg, S.C. facility across the state. As we recently reported, BMW is also struggling mightily amid recent prevailing economic headwinds – although the company insists production on the iX5 will begin later this year or in early 2027.
AESC is still providing BMW batteries for the vehicles, although it will send them to South Carolina via its global supply chain – not from the “paused” Pee Dee manufacturing facility.
Earlier this year, AESC was sued in state court by a construction contractor for more than $26 million – allegedly having “refused to compensate” the company for expenses related to the project and its “pause.”
“Much of the project was completed by the time of the suspension,” the lawsuit stated (.pdf).
Will this contractor ever be made whole? Will AESC ever open its Florence facility? Most importantly… will taxpayers ever get their money back?
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According to our sources, the answer to each one of those questions is a resounding “no.”
“AESC is dead,” a Florence-based source familiar with the situation confirmed to FITSNews. “They won’t comment publicly until mid-first quarter next year. Our ‘insiders’ are already doing the work for repurposing the property.”
A source at the S.C. Department of Commerce (SCDOC) confirmed this account – stating company and state officials were delaying the announcement because they didn’t want to harm McMaster’s legacy (or hurt president Donald Trump and other Republican politicians at the polls this fall).
Whenever the death knell sounds, the song remains the same… crony capitalism is failing South Carolina.
If the $515 million tab tied to this project had been doled out on a per capita basis, every single man, woman and child in Florence County could have received $3,718.30. Similarly, every single business in Florence County could have received a staggering $104,124.55.
That sort of cash influx could have dramatically moved the needle in this economically distressed region of South Carolina. Instead, local and state leaders essentially poured it in a pit and set it on fire…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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6 comments
Let’s see – this issue is 18 months old and Carolina is now 4 and 3 after the “Beamerball Implosion” article 1 month ago and not a word…
Now as for these “EV” related plants. ‘Merica still isn’t ready to commit to EVs. Since the end of the federal giveaways, EV sales have been flat at about 1.5 million units a year. 89% of all new vehicles sold in the US are internal combustion or at best (incredibly, stupidly, complex) hybrids. The US accounts for almost 20% of the 97,000,0000 personal vehicle sales worldwide. Until you fix the charge time problem for BEVs, internal combustion/hybrid will continue to amount to 70+% of total personal vehicle sales and manufacturers will continue to bambozzle governments for support to build “state of the art drive train power facilities” that fail to live up to the hype. I just bought a new (to me) Subaru, takes 8 minutes to fill, goes 400 miles on a fill up and gets better than 30 miles to the gallon on the highway. My buddy with the super-duper Tesla can go 300ish miles (without risking battery damage) and takes 8 hours to charge at home OR, he can drive around looking for a super charger that can damage his battery bank when charging in the heat (we live in South Carolina dumb ass) or the cold (they love to ski).
Who wants to bet on the odds that this site will end up being an AI data center, with another round of fascist -adjacent corporate crony financing from the state and county pushed through just before Wilson becomes governor? He has spoken against these types of things…it might end up being his first real test of resolve right out of the gates.
People and their anti data center push. You do realize that data centers are the future and the Chinese have spent more than this pushing the narrative against them in America and the uneducated have bought into it. The country who controls data controls the world. The state should have spent the $$$ on real education for the ignorant
I don’t have an anti-data center push. The problem with the currently designed data centers is that most experts are saying that they will be obsolete in 3-5 years and replaced with orbiting data centers that use solar energy and use the cold vacuum of space rather than groundwater for cooling. So, you end up cutting down thousands of acres of trees, pouring acres of concrete, creating vast changes in stormwater management, tap and drain local aquifers, and generate alot of sound and light pollution all just for something that will be abandoned in 5 years.
ANOTHER Waste of Tax Payer Dollars! We will be Left Paying for this BS Plan!! I still Predict that Scout Motors will Never Produce a Vehicle! The Governor and those in the House and Senate should Subsidies Small Mom and Pop Small Businesses!!
One of the few things Trump has done well is slam the green energy sector as he promised Big Oil in the 2024 campaign. This has led to the failure of many new green energy manufacturing plants in the US similar to the Beemer battery plant. He even used our money to buy out contracts for ocean based wind farms. As EV sales falter in the US, China’s market share has exploded as other countries turn to China for those vehicles. The entire world is moving to EV and the US is falling far, far behind.
I will be surprised if Scout ever produces a single vehicle as the market is no longer strong due, for the most part, to Trump’s moronic actions on green energy.