Greenville’s much-hyped battery gigafactory is getting a serious trim. EnerSys is retooling the lithium-cell plant it proposed for Greenville, narrowing the scope from a broad gigafactory to a purpose-built facility for aerospace, defense and other specialized industrial customers. The company says the revised plan is backed by a roughly $150 million Department of Energy grant and an estimated $500 million of net investment, and that its board has formally approved the development plan. EnerSys now expects an initial production capacity of about 1 gigawatt-hour and says construction could begin in the first half of fiscal 2028, with full production roughly three years after ground-breaking.
In a company release, via Business Wire, EnerSys said the DOE award is subject to final documentation and customary conditions. The release added that the company plans to fund the build with a mix of federal, state and local support plus operating cash flow, and that the board has approved the investment and development plan. The statement frames the project as purpose-built to meet defense customers’ requirements for secure, FEOC-compliant cells.
From Gigafactory Vision To Defense-Focused Build
EnerSys first laid out a much larger blueprint in February 2024, a proposed 4 GWh factory on roughly 140 acres at the Augusta Grove business park that was intended to serve commercial, industrial and defense markets. As detailed in EnerSys, that plan included a 500,000-square-foot footprint and an incentive package valued at about $200 million. The updated strategy trims initial capacity to roughly 1 GWh and narrows the plant’s scope to meet the stricter requirements of defense and other specialized applications.
Local Incentives And Jobs Still On The Table…