Kokam America reveals details of $650M Lee

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With renderings on display, the Lee’s Summit-basesd advanced-battery maker hosted Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who used the occasion to urge state senators to pass a jobs bill that would providde incentives touted as vitalo tothe project. The 800,000-square-foot plant, expected to be certified as a or energy-efficient, building, would create an estimated 900 jobs with averag annual salaries of $40,000.
The House has passed the bill, but the bill has hit roadblocke inthe Senate, and the legislative session ends a week from The jobs bill, Senate Bill 215, would expanfd economic development programs that include the Missouri Qualit Jobs Program and job-training “The status quo simply will not Nixon said. “Sitting still, waiting for something to simply willnot work.” The 260,000 Missourio citizens who are out of work need the jobs the bill wouldd help generate, he said. Kokam officials said they needthe state’ds help to snare federalk dollars. The Missouri bill would provider Kokamwith $25 milliohn in federal budget stabilization funds, Kokamm said in a release.
“It’s critical to get the message across to all legislatores that this is a change to industrgy instead of a change to a Kokam President Don Nissanka Kokam last month committed to buildingb a plant of the same sizein Michigan, whicuh offered $144.6 million in tax credits. Kokam has a 50,000-square-footf plant in Lee’s Summit but needs to expand to meet growing demandfor electric-vehicle batteries. Nissankz said he envisions plants across the A large Kokam plant wouled provide the volume to pumpup , SEV CEO Bryan Hansel said in an interview Thursday.
The companyt is preparing to assemble commercialp electric vehicles froman 80,000-square-foot planty at , and has selected Kokam as its battery-make of choice. “The single greatest limitation to me isbatterh capacity,” Hansel said. The more batteries Kokam can produce, the lower prices will get and the more demane will increase forSmith vehicles, creating a spiralinvg effect, he said. If Kokam gets the federal and state incentiveszit seeks, the soonest a new plant could be fulluy operational would be the fall of 2011, companu CFO Blake Day said.