By: Mark Glennon*
One for two isn’t bad when you are fighting city hall, your state government and a company backed by the Chinese Communist Party. But Gotion opponents aren’t content with their recent victory in Michigan. The fight against Gotion’s Illinois project continues, even as Gotion’s place in the world of government handouts expands.
You may recall the glowing announcements in 2023 about Gotion’s plans for state-subsidized, sister facilities to make EV lithium batteries in Illinois and Michigan. The Manteno, Illinois plant alone is getting $536 million from the State of Illinois.
The two plants were pitched as part of a Midwest ecosystem for EV production and part of Illinois’ grand economic and climate vision for EVs. The Michigan plant was to make parts that were to be assembled in Manteno.
But the Michigan plans are now officially dead, thanks to intense opposition over environmental impacts, size, use of forced labor and the Chinese connection. Local officials who supported the project were recalled by voters in 2023. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced last week that Gotion is in default of its agreement, leaving the state to recoup $23.6 million spent on land for the project. Gotion’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party are extensively documented here and elsewhere. Even the Biden Administration consequently banned purchase of its products by the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
The Manteno plant, however, is now in production. Where is it getting parts for assembly? Directly from China, according to the project’s opponents.
It’s not over, however. The Manteno plant is facing intense litigation over alleged defects in its approval process, including violations of environmental matters related to chemicals used and fire risks. That litigation has survived multiple efforts by Gotion to throw the case out and stonewall information gathering. Concerned Citizens of Manteno, the Illinois No Gotion group, now has a full green light to pursue discovery. That’s according to the oppositon’s lawyer, Robbie T. Dube of Eckland & Blando, who I spoke to last week. He expressed high confidence he will eventually win the case on the merits.
That was at a fundraiser last week in suburban Chicago for No Gotion Illinois headlined by Gordon Chang, an internationally recognized China and Gotion critic. Chang gave a rousing speech about the dangers China poses to the U.S, including Gotion in Illinois.
Where this would now be humorous, were so much taxpayer money not at stake, is thinking about Gotion in light of Illinois’ new energy law. That’s the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA, Senate Bill 25), passed Friday by the General Assembly. Gov. JB Pritzker says he will sign it.
A web of absurd subsidies is now in place.
As we wrote last week, under CRGA, Illinoisans will see a new line item on their electricity bills to fund batteries attached to the electricity grid to back up unreliable wind and solar sources, which the state has mandated and subsidized. Estimated cost to consumers: Probably at least $7 billion.
And who is among the makers of those batteries? Gotion, naturally. EV sales haven’t materialized at anything near the levels Illinois lawmakers and green energy enthusiasts planned; likewise, demand for EV batteries isn’t there. The central planners in Illinois forgot that Mr. Market doesn’t care for EVs.
So, Gotion shifted gears in Manteno and is using its subsidized plant to make batteries to bail out the subsidized wind and solar sector.
But wait, Gotion does have some sales for EVs from its Manteno plant – just two that we know about – Volkswagen and Rivian. Yes, subsidized, struggling Rivian. Rivian has received over $800 million in financial assistance from the State of Illinois. Yet, “As the electric vehicle (EV) business in the United States falls apart, tiny EV company Rivian Automotive Inc. is falling faster.” That’s how one report put it last week after Rivian released its quarterly financials. The company could lose more than $4 billion this year, that report adds.
Who better to figure out how to put itself at the center of central planning subsidies than the Chinese Communist Party?
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Wirepoints has followed the Gotion’s Illinois project closely from the start. Earlier columns are collected here.
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
In 2014, Oakwood Hills Il tried to ram in a power plant in, in the dead of afternoon. Village officials were accused of complicity, and an attorney who sat on County Board at the time met allegations of conflict. OMA was violated. Only after a small group of local citizens (concerned that this power plant would suck so much groundwater as to endanger widespread local community access to groundwater in a land-locked region) became active at great personal expense did the project get attention and ultimately rejection. 2025: are any local civilians galvanized to do anything to protect their own… Read more »
And the kicker to this story-those batteries for wind and solar will not be storing anything.The way the system is set up now, the energy wind and solar produce is on the grid (consumed) and backed-up by other means (nuclear, gas, etc.). Depending on load, wind and solar will not have excess capacity to store.
Pritzker is using IL taxpayer money to support Communist China. So wrong. But the Democrats now support socialism and communism, and Pritzker seems like their biggest fan. Stop this plant and vote Prizker out. I wonder if he, his friends, and IL Democrats stand to make money from Gotion? DOJ and FBI need to follow the money.
Pick up the emergency phone and call TRUMP to stop this insanity.
Feds need to step up and just kill this whole Chinese disaster.
It seems the DOE and DOW should be involved – If Gotion is now going to produce the IL mandated battery storage for the IL mandated windmills and solar (all with forced taxpayer and rate payer monies), then at the minimum there needs to be a full review for national security. Evidence has come out countless times that the Chinese put in controls they can operate, like remote kill switches.
You are right.
Recently a Scandinavian government tested possible electric buses and identified hidden features in Chinese buses that would enable the Chinese manufacturer to disable the buses remotely. Even the AP admits this.
https://apnews.com/article/ruter-yutong-china-norway-electric-buses-931f3dbdab3f82402da68cbcb31f856b
From port machinery, to electric grid software, to vehicles, to computers. If China ever decided to activate all its “back door” kill switches, it would be more powerful than an electromagnetic pulse (because it wouldn’t be geographically limited). The Chinese military (which controls everything in China) thinks this way; if you don’t anticipate that, you are being dangerously naive.
Yup, and the Chinese were caught redhanded putting kill switches into solar gear, which we wrote about here: https://wirepoints.org/two-more-reasons-to-fear-gotions-manteno-factory-kill-switches-and-a-land-grab-wirepoints/
Compared the Transit spending this is money well spent. The Chinese are leaders in battery technology. If we allowed Chinese electric cars in the US they would bankrupt all the American car companies. The Chinese produce the best EV at the lowest prices. Many Americans would be happy driving them, let the consumer make the choice.
Posted By: Mark Glennon
ON Transit Spending.
If only that low. Total cost now over $5.7 billion — a billion per mile. Will come to $1.8 million per ride. This is fiscal malfeasance on intergalactic scale.
https://wirepoints.org/chicagos-red-line-extension-cost-now-projected-to-exceed-1-billion-per-mile-biden-trying-to-lock-it-in-wirepoints/
So, the Red Line is your standard for whether money is being well spent. God help us. And if you want to let consumers make the choice, as you claim, then cut the subsidies.
Without subsidies NO BUSINESS would come to Illinois. Illinois is the last choice anyone in their right mind would make. Businesses are fleeing in record numbers, to get away from the never-ending excessive taxation. Illinois residents should be dancing in the streets that a business would come to the state.
Assuming the existing tax and debt situation, you’re correct. But cutting subsidies is one step toward fixing these.
Cut the Tariff on the Chinese EV’s and Zero subsidies for the American companies. The Chinese are so far ahead of the US there is little hope of America catching up for years to come. Check on the YouTube about the Chinese cars and most everyone will be surprised.
Ford CEO: China Can ‘Put Us All Out of Business’
So, you’re fine with the subsidy for Chinese Gotion but would cut all subsidies for US companies. Please, try to put up sensical comments.
No Duties, No Tariffs, No Subsidies for anyone. Let free trade and the market work its magic.
Let’s not forget JB Pritzker, the business wunderkind, who pushed through this fabulous deal with (for) Gotion.
Thank you for this update, Mark.
With the Michigan victory, wasn’t a legal precedent set to take to the SCOTUS if need be? Just wondering.
No. The Illinois issues are state and local in that litigation.
Thanks Mark for the update and digging through all the weeds to keep exposing the reckless spending and waste by The Peoples Republic of Illinois. With a whopping 275 jobs created so far by Gotion, what a great investment it has been for taxpayers.
One important aspect of of the Michigan situation is that the “local officials that supported the project were recalled.” When it comes to politicians I can not recall in my 70 plus years of ever witnessing a “recall” and in fact most of the politicians always gets reelected. All it takes is some meager handouts iced with an assortment of “whataboutisms” and the voters fall right in line every election. I doubt that things will ever change here despite my most fervent hopes. Just look at Pritzker’s support…and change is hoped for?