(Yicai) Sept. 11 -- China's Gotion High-Tech will build a factory that is expected to become the largest-ever electric vehicle battery project in Illinois, the United States.

The company will build its second US plant in Manteno, IL, via its US unit with a planned investment of USD2 billion, the biggest sum ever for this type of project in the midwestern state, to make and sell products to US carmakers to meet rising demand, The Paper reported recently.

The 150-acre factory, scheduled to start production next year, will churn out 40 gigawatt-hours of lithium battery packs per year. The project will reuse the existing infrastructure of an old factory to save resources.

This is Gotion's second project in the States. In October, the firm said it will build a USD2.4 billion battery material plant in Northern Michigan. That undertaking is still under construction, per the report.

Jay Robert Pritzker, governor of Illinois, said the gigafactory will create 2,600 new jobs, according to a press release the Illinois Office of Governor issued on Sept. 8. Gotion will be given USD536 million in subsidies and the Chinese firm is entitled to a tax deduction of USD213 million in the next 30 years, Pritzker added. Illinois will fund a training college around the plant to train local workers.

Industry insiders said that the plant should promote the application of lithium iron phosphate battery technologies in the US and help Gotion attract more automakers, especially American ones, to speed up market development.

Gotion's stock price [SHE: 002074] rose 1.3 percent to close at CNY24.12 (USD3.30).

Editor: Emmi Laine