(The Center Square) – A Chinese battery plant in Manteno, Illinois that is getting state taxpayer support, isn’t producing electric vehicle batteries, according to a village trustee. Instead, photos from local critics and a Wirepoints report show the Gotion facility is making batteries for data centers.
The revelation is raising new concerns about national security. Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon warns that foreign-made components could enable spying or shutdowns of critical internet infrastructure.
“The data farms are now critical and being built rapidly to meet the growing demands of the internet. They’re essential to the internet infrastructure,” said Glennon. “But we don’t know for sure what Gotion’s plans are or where they’re investing their battery production, because they never tell anyone. It’s a completely non-transparent company, typical of Communist Party-connected firms.”
Gotion did not respond to multiple requests for comment about their data center battery production.
The plant, backed by $536 million in tax credits Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved, was originally pitched as an electric vehicle battery facility. At a recent village board meeting, Manteno Trustee CJ Boudreau said Gotion isn’t making EV batteries and is instead producing large-format batteries for data centers, with strong safety measures in place.
“Right now, they’ve got two active lines, and a big misconception is that they’re making EV batteries. They’re not. What they’re producing looks more like big storage units, like what you’d see on the back of a semi-truck,” said Boudreau. “There are two types of batteries, [lithium iron phosphate] and [nickel manganese cobalt]. LFP is the safer one. It burns at around 700 degrees, while NMC burns up to 1,500. LFP can be put out with water, even submerged. These have fire suppressants inside each unit and throughout the plant. They’re going above and beyond to make sure it’s safe.”
Glennon said the threat is clear and far from a fringe or partisan issue.
“One of the most high-profile warnings came from former Obama-era CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who cautioned that Chinese companies routinely embed spyware and backdoor kill switches into their electronics,” said Glennon. “A recent Reuters investigation even reported on remote shutdown capabilities in Chinese-manufactured components, technology that could be deployed to paralyze U.S. systems. That story got almost no attention in the United States.”
Despite mounting bipartisan alarm, Illinois leadership remains unfazed, according to Glennon.
“Nebraska, under a Democratic governor, recently passed and signed legislation that completely bars state funds from going to companies connected to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Glennon. “I just don’t understand Pritzker’s fascination or why he ignores the national security officials’ warnings about CCP tech companies.”
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Gotion’s move away from EV production raises doubts about why the state handed over taxpayer money in the first place. Illinois promoted the project as part of a green energy and electric vehicle push, but Glennon said the demand for EVs hasn’t lived up to the hype.
“We were way out over our skis on this,” Glennon said. “People don’t want EVs at the level projected, and they’re too expensive. The market could handle it if there were real demand. We didn’t need to throw hundreds of millions at it.”