The Associated Press reported Tuesday afternoon that Kentucky officials will not start paying out $21 million in economic incentives out to Microvast, until the company “further explains” why the U.S. Department of Energy has rejected a $200 million loan for the project — claiming the firm has “improper ties” to China.
Still expected, for now, to build a facility in Hopkinsville’s Commerce Park II at some point in this economic calendar, the company is also building a battery plant in Tennessee, and had hopes of being grant funded through 2021 federal infrastructure affirmations.
Microvast Founder/CEO Yang Wu told the AP the company “was surprised” by the DOE’s decision against the loan’s award, as plans revolve around the creation of new technology employing polyaramid separation.
The investment in Hopkinsville includes $504 million in capital construction and more than 560 full-time jobs, with a completion date for first-quarter 2025. An expansion of current proceedings in Clarksville was also expected to be funded.
Wu also told the AP that while there will be some “timing impact” bringing the technology to the United States, the company still has plans for its national presence.
Microvast has also issued a written statement following the $200 million loan decline, noting Wu is “an American citizen,” and that the company “is based in Texas, its shares are traded on Nasdaq, and the operations for our global business are centralized in the U.S.”
Furthermore, Wu iterated the company is neither controlled or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party, nor the Chinese government.
In a separate report from the AP, Microvast was one of 20 companies to earn preliminary grants back in 2021 — totaling $2.8 billion in bipartisan promise.
Now canceled, both Republicans and Democrats have since praised both President Joe Biden and the DOE’s decision to cancel Microvast’s portion of the deal.
House Science Committee Chairman Lucas, Republican from Oklahoma, called it a “win for taxpayers and American businesses,” while New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat for House Energy and Commerce, said the call showed the DOE “is taking stewardship of taxpayer money very seriously.”
