Panasonic announced on Wednesday it has chosen De Soto, Kansas, as the site of a massive new factory. The plant will be the largest vehicle battery production facility in the world and will cost $4 billion to construct. As one of the Kansas lawmakers who had to sign a non-disclosure agreement while working for months to land a mysterious economic development project, Rep. Stephanie Clayton, a Democrat of Overland Park, says she could not be happier with the final outcome. State officials announced on Wednesday that Japanese electronics giant Panasonic would build a $4 billion factory in De Soto to produce batteries for Tesla’s electric vehicles. They estimated the plant would eventually create 4,000 jobs for Johnson County and thousands of other jobs in the surrounding region. “This was a heavy lift on the part of so many people, not just in the legislature, but also for a lot of our local chambers, local economic development officials, the city of De Soto and the entire state, ” Clayton said.
Source: KCUR
