Oklahoma has lost to Kansas in attracting an electric vehicle battery plant. Panasonic has announced it has selected Kansas for its new $4 billion manufacturing facility.
Panasonic was considering the Mid-American Industrial Park near Pryor in northeastern Oklahoma as a potential site.
According to Japanese-based news source Nikkei Asia, the company decided to go with Kansas for its favorable tax treatment and its proximity to Texas—even though Oklahoma is closer.
The news comes after Oklahoma lawmakers offered the Japanese company hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic development incentives. In April, state lawmakers passed the LEAD act that set aside nearly $700 million to attract big companies like Panasonic. The Kansas incentive package was more than a billion dollars.
The factory is expected to hire as many as 4,000 people and supply a new high-capacity battery used in the electric vehicles produced by Tesla in Austin, Texas.
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