The Battery Belt Expands: South Carolina's Role in the Next Wave of EV

Manufacturing

The Battery Belt Expands: South Carolina's Role in the Next Wave of EV

Posted
Monday, June 29, 2026 3:55 pm

By Amy Bonesteel Smith

When South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed Executive Order 2022-31 in 2022, it was designed to lure manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) and their batteries to the state. Four years later, companies are taking the state up on its promises.

Resulting in major investments from companies including Redwood Materials ($3.5 billion for their battery materials and recycling center in Berkeley County), Scout Motors ($2 billion for their EV truck/SUV facility in Blythewood), BMW ($1.7 billion for EV production and battery infrastructure in Spartanburg and Woodruff), and Volvo ($1.3 billion toward producing EVs in its Ridgeville/Charleston plant), the governor's order opened channels to streamline infrastructure and workforce training, hoping to create what the state called a "one-stop shop" for EV manufacturing.

An announcement in 2025 that Scout was investing another $300 million for a supplier park next to their vehicle production facility will add another 1,000 jobs when expected to be completed later this year or early 2027.

Manufacturing has a giant role in the economy of South Carolina, with Transportation Equipment Manufacturing being the largest and quickest-growing subsector in the state, according to University of South Carolina Research Economist Joseph Von Nessen in a report presented at the 15th Annual SC Automotive Summit in Greenville in February 2026. Von Nessen's data shows the segment drastically picked up steam in the past 20 years, growing from 11.9 to 20.3 percent of the state's manufacturing industry.

The automotive manufacturing contributes a $64.6 billion annual economic impact and 119,475 jobs in the state, according to the report, comprising 16 percent of the state's manufacturing business.

Recycling lithium-ion batteries from EVs and electronics started at Redwood Materials' 600-acre Ridgeville plant last November. The location is the second battery facility of the Nevada-based company, founded in 2017. The company says the plant will be able to recover 20,000 metric tons of critical materials annually now; in the future it hopes to produce over a million EV batteries a year.

Giving the keynote address at The Battery Show South in Atlanta last year, Gov. Henry McMaster pointed to education, environment and the economy as the factors driving the growth, "We could see it (the EV industry) coming," the governor told the group. "We wanted to have the door open."

Additionally, the joining together of the state's Chamber of Commerce and SC's Manufacturers Alliance into one organization (South Carolina Manufacturers and Commerce) offers increased support for companies in the EV battery sector. Advocating for tax incentives, ease of affordable energy, workforce skill training, and more, the alliance has helped facilitate economic development in the EV arena.

McMaster noted the impact each of these companies make in the often-small communities where they build. "It puts new shoes on children's feet and puts braces on their teeth," he noted. Thousands of jobs have been and are being created with the investments, a part of the close to 500 automotive-related companies in the state.

Resiliency in Changing Markets

The business of EV production is also tied to government incentives and tax credits, and changing policies will impact the industry. According to a report issued by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and Atlas Public Policy looking at 2025, the Southeast had the highest ever sales for EVs last year, with an overall market share of over 10 percent. Going forward, the study predicts changes in laws could affect these numbers.

After the expiration of the federal clean-vehicle tax credit on September 30, 2025, sales dropped from 77,770 passenger EVs sold in Q3 to 44,000 in Q4, according to the report. The states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee have drawn 41 percent of the country's private-sector investment and 35 percent of the anticipated jobs, they note. The region has much at stake in the growth or stagnation of the country's EV business.

And despite new investments of $3.2 billion in the region, SACE points to $5.5 billion of canceled investments, a loss of 3,300 jobs.

One company's investment in Florence County is getting back on track after a bumpy 2025 due to economic changes. First breaking ground in 2023, Japan-based Envision Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (Envision AESC) planned to build a $1.6 billion, 1,000-acre battery manufacturing plant. The factory is planned to supply battery cells for BMW's newest lines of EVs produced at their Spartanburg plant. It will employ over 1,000 when up and running, according to Envision AESC.

The company halted construction in June 2025 due to what they called policy and market concerns. In February 2025, South Carolina's Fiscal Accountability Authority removed bonds worth $111 million for the company's expansion. Energy tax credits that were questioned last year were signed into law last July, and the company plans to resume construction soon after a pause of six months. While the plant is being finished, the company is supplying BMW with cells from other suppliers.

BMW's $700 million investment in Woodruff for a new battery assembly (focusing on creating the packs/pallets for vehicles, not the battery cells themselves) plant should be completed this year (construction began in 2023). The plant should enable BMW to produce EVs at their Spartanburg facility in late 2026, company leaders say.

Proterra, an EV manufacturer from Silicon Valley, California, is one example of the challenges businesses in the segment have faced. Arriving in the Greenville area in 2010, the company started by building electric buses, expanding in 2021 with a $76 million, 327,000-square-foot battery-building facility in Greer. They employed close to 250 at the time.

After the EV battery plant opened in 2022, the company had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023 to stay afloat. Phoenix Motorcars later purchased the EV transit bus business, and Volvo Inc. purchased the battery plant in 2024. (Phoenix Motorcars continues to build zero-emission transit buses and medium-duty vehicles at their location.)

"In 12 months (in 2022), we went from a big empty gray box to a fully launched production facility," says Proterra's CEO Chris Bailey, whose experience includes serving as VP at Hubbell Inc. before coming to Proterra in 2021 as then-senior vice president. Despite supply chain challenges due to the pandemic, he notes, "We came in on time and under budget in 12 months with arguably one of the most sophisticated production facilities out there."

Today, close to 200 Proterra employees build battery packs (they do not produce the battery cells, which come from different suppliers) in often custom configurations for commercial vehicles. These include Class 8 (the heaviest at over 33,000 pounds) trucks, school buses, transit buses, construction equipment, emergency vehicles, and more. Their sleek facility houses the latest in robotic technology, along with a bustling assembly line that includes rigorous safety testing, a sales department, and storage.

Like others in the industry, Proterra has learned to pivot. "We can adapt – we have the right tools in our toolbox," says Bailey, pointing to Class 8 trucks and industrial vehicles as their probable mainstay in the future. "In the meantime, we've got lots of work to do and opportunity – we refuse to be a victim of the way the wind blows."