WDRB-TV Investgates - Placing Battery Plants In Kentucky Comes With Electrifying Taxpayer Costs

Kentucky's EV battery deals carry big costs for taxpayers

The biggest economic development deal in Kentucky history also comes with what is likely the most generous corporate subsidy the state has ever offered

By Chris Otts
WDRB Reporter
Dec 8, 2022

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- The biggest economic development deal in Kentucky history also comes with what is likely the most generous corporate subsidy the state has ever offered.

Officials on Thursday gave final approval to a $250 million contribution of public money to BlueOval SK, the joint venture of Ford Motor Co. and South Korea's SK Group. BlueOval is building a $5.8 billion pair of plants near Elizabethtown that will employ 5,000 people making batteries for electric vehicles.

Kentucky has previously offered subsidies in the hundreds of millions to big manufacturers such as Toyota and Ford, which also operates auto plants in Louisville.