Hidden Currents: How S.C. Officials Kept Electric Vehicle Project Secret

 On the night of Sunday, Feb. 26 this year, state and local government officials gathered in the 600 Executive Club at the Williams-Brice football stadium in Columbia for an event billed as a "Confidential Economic Development Dinner with Project Connect: Scout Motors."

The confidential briefing materials, which included a dinner seating chart as part of nearly 1,000 emails provided to The Nerve by the town of Blythewood, noted that Volkswagen's board of directors planned to make a final decision on March 3 about whether to locate Scout Motors' first electric pickup truck and sport utility vehicle assembly plant in South Carolina or the other finalist state, believed then to be Mississippi.

Also included in the emails, which were released under the state's open-records law, was an incentives wish list that was provided in December by Scout Motors - identified in the document only as Project Connect - through a global real-estate services firm to local officials.

Records provided to The Nerve show that the project - which likely will cost taxpayers in South Carolina far more than the $1 billion dispersed in March to the state Department of Commerce - had been kept secret since at least October 2022.

More broadly, The Nerve sought answers as to why there was no statewide public discussion beforehand about the Republican McMaster's executive order in October 2022 - issued about two weeks before the first recorded meeting between state officials and Scout Motors representatives - committing the state to promote the electric vehicle industry.

Local officials defended the behind-closed-doors negotiations on the Scout Motors project.

The Nerve recently asked Scout Motors CEO Keogh for specifics about how South Carolina's incentives package was better than what might have been offered by Mississippi, believed by S.C. officials in February to be the other finalist state.

A state commitment to "Establish an electric vehicle charging station network of sites" A state commitment to "Not support the establishment of an automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer" within 45 "Road surface miles of the Mega Site," and.

Wright said county officials first became aware in a "Virtual meeting" last Dec. 5 with JLL real estate brokers, which he noted was arranged by Commerce, of Scout Motors' interest in locating its plant in Richland County, though county officials didn't know the company's identity then.

As with Richland County, the Town Council subsequently approved the main project development agreement with Scout Motors, which also included the city of Columbia, Commerce and the state Coordinating Council for Economic Development, made up of the heads or board chairpersons of 11 state agencies involved with economic development.

Besides receiving state benefits, Scout Motors will save millions in county property taxes over 40 years under the FILOT agreement, which will allow the industrial project site to be assessed at the lowest rate applied to owner-occupied homes, as The Nerve revealed in June, and sets a fixed millage rate.

https://www.thenerve.org/hidden_currents_how_s_c_officials_kept_electric_vehicle_project_secret