Electric car part company plans to invest $500M and create 300 new jobs in this rural SC county
A magnet manufacturer that will build electric vehicle components plans to invest more than half a billion dollars and create 300 jobs in Sumter County.
The e-VAC Magnetics plan is the latest economic development announcement in the last 14 months of the state’s push to build up the electric vehicle industry in South Carolina as the automotive industry shifts from gas-powered vehicles to EVs.
Other companies such as electric vehicle manufacturer Scout Motors and EV battery component company Redwood Materials, are both building plants in South Carolina. It is the latest move from EV companies flocking to South Carolina after commerce and state officials set aside more than $1 billion in incentives for companies to come to the state.
The S.C. Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits, or tax credits, for e-VAC as well as grants to Sumter County to help pay for land acquisition, site preparation, water and sewer improvements road improvements and building construction related to the project.
e-VAC will build its first facility in Sumter County on 85 acres in the Pocotaligo Industrial Park. The facility will house the production of permanent magnets for defense applications and electric vehicles.
The U.S. Department of Defense also agreed to pay e-VAC $94.1 million to “acquire and install manufacturing equipment, operationalize technical infrastructure, and engineer production lines for the facility,” which is expected to be online in late autumn 2025, the news release said.
“Our concerted efforts to attract electric-vehicle related businesses to South Carolina continue to pay off in a major way, this time with more than half a billion dollars invested and 300 new jobs for Sumter County,” Gov. Henry McMaster said in a news release. “This transformative investment by e-VAC will bolster Sumter’s economy while strengthening our already thriving electric vehicle supply chain.”
South Carolina’s Technical College System, through the readySC program, will help recruit and train potential employees.
“The arrival of e-VAC Magnetics in Sumter County is a testament to our state’s booming economic growth and our commitment to fostering an environment that attracts business and opportunity,” House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter said. “South Carolina continues to be a leader in the advancing electric vehicle sector, and I could not be prouder to continue this trend in Sumter County.”