EV Battery Component Company Backs Out Of Plans For $152M Haywood County Facility

Brownsville-Haywood Economic Development director is still rosy about EV industry in West Tennessee

Image: A road leads to a bare plot of land prepped to be part of the I-40 Advantage Industrial Park in Brownsville, Tenn. Enchem America, Inc. planned to build a $152 million electrolyte manufacturing facility at the industrial park, but backed out of the agreement in September 2025. Image Credit: Cassandra Stephenson

***Note from The Tennessee Conservative: This article posted here for informational purposes only.

By Cassandra Stephenson [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –

A South Korean battery component maker has backed out of plans to build a $152.5 million electrolyte manufacturing facility that would have brought 190 jobs to Haywood County.

Enchem America announced its plan to build on the “shovel ready” I-40 Advantage Industrial Park in Brownsville in 2023. 

The site is roughly 16 miles from BlueOval City, a massive electric vehicle manufacturing campus slated to produce Ford Motor Company’s new all-electric pickup truck and electric vehicle batteries in partnership with SK On. The BlueOval City campus is expected to serve as manufacturing space for BlueOval SK, Ford and electric vehicle component suppliers, injecting jobs and residents into the surrounding rural West Tennessee communities.

The Enchem facility would have produced electrolytes used for electric vehicle batteries, and was expected to magnify the company’s ability to supply and support its electric vehicle partners in the United States.

Enchem decided to withdraw from the project in mid-September “after careful consideration and an extensive review of (their) North American business strategy,” Brownsville-Haywood County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Aaron Stewart wrote in an email to the corporation’s board members and West Tennessee mayors on Sept. 26.

The decision was “primarily driven by a recent shift in demand from (their) key North American customers,” the company stated, according to Stewart. 

Enchem America did not respond to a request for comment.

The project cancellation comes amid continuing shifts in the electric vehicle market. Ford Motor Company announced it will delay mass production of the next-generation pickup truck at BlueOval City until 2028, though Ford still plans to start producing prototypes of the truck there in 2027.

Stewart told Tennessee Lookout that his agency is working to terminate the state incentives Enchem was set to receive for the project. The company received a $2 million recruitment grant in 2023, according to a state database. 

Stewart added that he will work with the state and the Tennessee Valley Authority — which has contributed grant funds to prepare the industrial park for future development — to put the site back on the market. 

Enchem completed preliminary site grading but had not yet begun construction. 

“It’s not like they’re abandoning a facility,” Stewart said.

Though it will take time to get the site back on the market, Stewart said it “always generated interest because of its proximity to Memphis and Jackson,” and all of the site preparation that has already been completed as part of the state’s Select Tennessee Certified Sites program.

“With BlueOval City just down the road, and production beginning in 2027 and mass production in 2028, whether (a new tenant is) automotive or anything else, I suspect it’ll begin to draw interest just like it did before, and we’ll work closely again with the state and TVA partners to market that site,” he said.

More details about the site’s future will be discussed at the Brownsville-Haywood Economic Development Corporation board meeting on Oct. 8.

Stewart said he is not concerned by uncertainty in the electric vehicle market, which is still evolving.

“It’s almost like the automotive industry is trying to look into a crystal ball,” he said. “And when you’re trying to navigate policies coming out of Washington, when you’re trying to navigate international supply chains from rare earth metals all the way to aluminum production, tariffs, trade agreements — I mean, I don’t envy the automakers trying to figure out how to chart a course for the next 12 months, let alone the next five to 10 years.”

He highlights the $5.6 billion investment in the BlueOval City campus.

“There’s nearly 11 million square feet under a roof, machinery and equipment is still being installed and calibrated, albeit at a slower pace,” Stewart said.