CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A second Microvast plant will not be coming to Clarksville after all. In October, the company received word of a $200 million federal grant to fund such a facility and initially said the facility would be built here. But now it seems that will not see fruition in Clarksville.
According to a previous news release, a total of 20 companies received a combined $2.8 billion to build and expand commercial-scale facilities in 12 states to extract and process lithium, graphite and other battery materials. Microvast was among those selected, and the plan was to build a plant intended to supply 19 GWh of EV batteries to the current Clarksville plant and other domestic manufacturers.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board told Clarksville Now this week that Clarksville was not selected for the Microvast plant. While no reason was given to the IDB, officials noted that when grant dollars are awarded, there is usually a timeline attached.
“Microvast will continue to improve and expand at their current location off International Boulevard. The expansion project, funded by the Department of Energy, will happen outside of Clarksville Montgomery County due to the utility demand and infrastructure costs associated with the new development,” said Josh Ward, director of Economic Development at the IDB.
Clarksville Now has reached out to Microvast for comment.
The new plant would have brought an additional 700 to 800 jobs to Clarksville, in addition to the hundreds more already coming as a result of LG Chem, Amazon and others.
Here is a list of ongoing industrial projects in Montgomery County:
In addition, several local entertainment and retail projects are under way: