Tennessee Wins Again!
Remember back last April when Tennessee won a new Volkswagen plant that Kentucky wasn't even in the running for?
Now, Kentucky's lost out on a high-tech Nissan manufacturing plant to our southern neighbor.
Nissan is building a manufacturing plant for it's super-green EV electric car in Tennessee- not in Kentucky, that third largest auto state in the nation. Tennessee will also be host to a- get this- a high-capacity lithium ion battery production facility in partnership with Nissan's partner company, NEC Corp.
Nissan has announced plans to launch the large-scale production of electric cars and batteries in the United States, with a massive 50 billion Yen ($516 million) facility in Smyrna, Tennessee.
The site will be capable of knocking-out an impressive 50,000 to 100,000 EVs by 2012, with investment possibly DOUBLING to 100 billion Yen (more than $1 Billion).
The Japanese outfit, fast becoming a forerunner in the race to the mass roll-out of EVs worldwide, aims to tap into low-interest loans for the production of greener vehicles as part of the US government's package to support the auto industry.
Then they ask:
Again, this is not being built in Kentucky. Why? Were we even in the mix with Nissan and parent company Renault?
Well, let's count the ways:
- Tennessee has no income tax
- Tennessee is a right-to-work state
- Tennessee has reasonable prevailing wage laws that are about 20% lower than Kentucky's lowest
All reasons why CEOs view Tennessee as a top five state for doing business, a full twenty spots higher than Kentucky.
