State Rep. Andrew Beeler said a new request for an additional $750 million in taxpayer funding for Ford Motor Company’s Marshall battery plant, which uses Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) technology, would make the overall deal worse for Michigan taxpayers.
Beeler made the comments following the latest funding request, which comes less than a week after state officials approved a $1 billion subsidy package for the project. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has since requested an additional $750 million for site preparation costs. The supplemental request was not disclosed during earlier public discussions of the deal, according to a release from Beeler’s office.
“Gov. Whitmer somehow negotiated an even worse deal for Michigan taxpayers than she initially let on — keeping almost a billion dollars secret for more than a week,” Beeler said. “After the governor lost a Ford plant to a state without an income tax in 2021, she now seems desperate to spend as many taxpayer dollars as possible as long as she can secure a deal for her corporate friends. Meanwhile, she wouldn’t even be honest with the Michiganders who have to pay her outrageously expensive price tag.”
The Center for Economic Accountability has named Michigan’s Ford-CATL subsidy package the worst economic development deal of the year, citing an estimated cost of roughly $700,000 per job for positions expected to pay about $20 per hour. Ford originally projected 2,500 jobs at the Marshall site but later reduced that figure to 1,700 after scaling back the project’s capacity by 43%, according to Bridge Michigan.
The changes to the project also come amid broader financial pressures for Ford Motor Company, which reported $13 billion in electric vehicle losses from 2023 through 2024 and recorded a $19.5 billion writedown as it shifted the Marshall plant’s purpose from electric vehicle battery production to data center energy storage, according to TechCrunch. The company will now use CATL-licensed technology to produce battery systems for data centers and the electrical grid.
Beeler is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former surface warfare officer who represented Michigan’s 83rd District, which includes Sanilac County and parts of St. Clair County.
