ATLANTA – A Massachusetts-based electric vehicles supplier has abandoned plans to build a manufacturing facility in Bulloch County.
Aspen Aerogels Inc., which makes thermal barriers that insulate the batteries on electric cars from fires, announced Thursday in an investor call that instead of building a second plant near Statesboro, it will increase production capacity at it East Providence, R.I., plant.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced the Statesboro project back in 2022. At the time, the company was planning to invest $325 million in the plant and create more than 250 jobs. Production had been expected to start late in 2023.
“In early 2023, pre-empting a reset in EV demand expectations, we decided to right-time the construction of our planned second aerogel manufacturing facility in Statesboro, Georgia, and subsequently ramped up our external manufacturing capacity,” Ricardo Rodriguez, Aspen Aerogel’s chief financial officer and treasurer, wrote this week in a news release.
“(However), in this most recent quarter, the external manufacturing model has fully demonstrated its ability to efficiently increase aerogel supply. We are confident that a capital-light and modular capacity plan provides the most efficient path to creating value.”
Demand for electric vehicles hasn’t grown as much in recent years as EV manufacturers expected, resulting from a combination of factors including high sticker prices, an insufficient number of charging stations, and government policies that have discouraged car buyers from purchasing EVs.
The Trump administration recently froze a $5 billion program aimed at funding the construction of EV charging stations.