EV Battery maker Gotion fails in Michigan; Resistance builds in Illinois

MANTENO – With the permanent closure of the $2.4B Gotion project in Michigan’s Green Charter Township last week, national and international attention is turning to the small town of Manteno, an hour south of Chicago.

Gotion, a Chinese-owned EV battery manufacturer, has already opened its Illinois doors in what was once a Kmart warehouse, easily accessible just east of I-57 in Manteno, a town of 10,000.  So far, the plant has activated five lines for assembling batteries used for industrial and home power storage, electric vehicles, and EV chargers. Gotion currently advertises 55 jobs available on ZipRecruiter.

All that would be exciting for locals if the economic development plan had been above board and transparent, but before the 2023 announcement that Gotion would be coming to Manteno, two years of quiet negotiations with local officials went on. The people of Manteno, for the most part, had no idea what their officials were planning.

Concerned citizens form resistance

When Manteno residents found out about the plan, they formed a group called the Concerned Citizens of Manteno (CCOM) and began researching the company. They found it had direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. In addition, they found that the company’s plans to develop a large lithium battery plant would divert the community’s water and energy resources and possibly contaminate the community’s soil.

What began one evening two years ago with 50 people standing in a parking lot, wondering what Project Unity and Gotion is, launched a community-wide effort to “Stop Gotion” in Manteno, CCOM Board Member Jillian Rojas told a crowd Tuesday night in Olympia Fields, Illinois.

Manteno’s former mayor announced the formation of Project Unity, but did not detail what it was or what it would cost local taxpayers, she said.

“As the truth began to surface, we learned that the so-called ‘Unity Project’ was tied to Gotion, a CCP-affiliated company prepared to build massive lithium batteries right here in our hometown under the banner of economic development. With that, all locals began asking who we are uniting with and what this mayor had gotten us into?” Rojas said.

State and local officials reveal secret plan

In September 2023, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker held a press conference at the Manteno facility, promising $536M in economic incentives and local government property tax concessions.  The plan was approved by the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly earlier in 2023.  

At the time, Illinois already was home to two EV assembly plants – Rivian in central Illinois’ Normal and Lion Electric in Joliet, which made buses and commercial vehicles. Lion Electric has since shuttered, and Rivian just laid off yet another 4% of its workforce.

CCOM supporters learned what was going on in Michigan with Gotion, so the group began organizing, filing Freedom of Information requests, and eventually sought legal counsel from those working with Green Charter Township citizens.

CCOM draws attention near and far

As the controversy began to grow, support for the citizens working to Stop Gotion in Manteno grew little by little. The situation drew the attention of former State Rep. Jeanne Ives, who now directs Breakthrough Ideas, a nonprofit that aims to inform voters and protect liberty.

Mrs. Ives organized and hosted the fundraiser on Tuesday evening at the Olympia Fields Country Club to pay for CCOM’s growing legal fees.

“The Gotion deal in Illinois is an outrageous affront to taxpayers, other businesses, and especially those of us with family members serving in uniform,” Ives told TMANews. “No elected official in the United States should be handing out massive taxpayer subsidies to a company connected to the Chinese Communist Party, and it should be illegal to pick winners and losers in the marketplace this way, as well.”

It was how the Gotion deal evolved and how the local and state officials schemed together to negotiate terms that drew her ire, she said.

“I was so disgusted about the deal and how it came to be, behind closed doors with politicians who signed NDAs, so their residents had no idea what was happening, that I decided to get involved,” she said.

“When I saw the common citizens rise up to fight a multinational corporation with ties to the CCP, big government elitists, and small government tyrants, I had to help them. Bringing like-minded folks together to support good causes, such as the lawsuit the Concerned Citizens of Manteno are pursuing, is the least I can do.”

In an effort to raise funds for the group, Ives reached out to Newsweek columnist and nationally acclaimed author Gordon Chang to encourage those working to stop Gotion in their community.

Newsweek columnist Gordon Chang warns of CCP-owned entities

Chang’s address included stunning revelations about the danger of embracing a Chinese entity expected to be in submission to the Chinese Communist Party’s demands.

“There are two things to discuss (about Gotion),” Chang told the audience. “First of all, China has codified espionage. Under its 2017 national intelligence law, China demands that every Chinese entity and every Chinese individual commit acts of espionage if they receive a demand from officials. But more importantly, in the Communist Party’s top-down system, nobody in China can resist a demand from the Communist Party. So this is more than just espionage.

“In fact, Gotion’s ties to the Communist Party run deep,” Chang said. “And China will use every facility in our country, including Gotion’s facility in Manteno, as a base of subversion in America. One more thing, we cannot forget Gotion’s use of forced labor in China. This is part of China’s plan of genocide…

“What China wants to do is embed slave labor into the American supply chain,” Chang said.

Zach Mottl, whose family owns Atlas Tool Works in Lyons, Illinois, shared his family business’s experience after China became a sought-after trade partner in 2000, confirming Chang’s concerns.

Now serving as Coalition for a Prosperous America‘s board chairman, as part of the evening’s panel, Mottl shared how China’s low wages impacted American manufacturing.

“As soon as China got most favored nation training status, faster than you could say ‘free trade’, my customers were disappearing and leaving. In 2001, our revenues were cut in half by the 2003 third quarter, and I just thought we weren’t going to survive,” he told the audience.

His family tried to reassure him that this kind of thing had happened before, but Mottl insisted that this change was different and would be permanent.

“And it did, unfortunately,” he said. “We went through a lot of pain to lay off people and preserve the company. I found industries that weren’t going to go to China, that made defense weapons and weren’t trying to beat me up on price and make my workers, my American workers, work for Chinese wages.”

The concerns are justified, Mottl said, and more needs to be done to encourage the American manufacturing industry and its workforce.

TMA announces support for stopping Gotion

Executive Vice President of the Technology & Manufacturing Association, Dennis LaComb, shared Mottl’s view on the impact of a Chinese-based manufacturer operating within Illinois. However, he also voiced concerns about the state using tax dollars so freely to attract businesses to Illinois.

In the case of Gotion, Illinois awarded incentives worth $536 million, including tax benefits from REV Illinois (Reimagining Energy and Vehicles), capital funding from Invest Illinois, and other tax relief. 

“That is why TMA is fully supportive of this effort to stop Gotion,” LaComb said. “Most of our small and midsize manufacturers have been in Illinois for decades, if not generations. They are rarely thanked for their faithful contributions to the state of Illinois. Instead, they are required to pay more to balance the budget, while new multinational businesses are gifted with incentives, tax breaks, and property tax relief. It’s time we showed appreciation for our longtime small and midsize manufacturers who’ve paid their fair share over the years and asked simply for public policies that encourage businesses like theirs.”

Gotion lawsuit in discovery phase

Now in the discovery phase of an ongoing lawsuit, CCOM looks toward February 2026, when the case will move into the expert discovery phase. Next, CCOM’s attorney, Robby Dube, told the fundraiser attendees that there will be a summary judgment after a bench trial.

The key issue is that Gotion is allegedly using highly toxic chemicals in the production of batteries.

“We are in the depths of discovery, and that’s the most arduous part. That is what we need your help with the most. So thank you for being here today, taking your time, taking your resources. I cannot thank you enough,” Dube said.

“Gotion is going to try to drag it out as long as possible. I know people have been fighting for years. I asked that you fight. There’s a little bit longer, a little bit more. Do not lose sight of the fact that Gotion can be beaten.

“I did it just a week ago,” Dube said, having led the challenge in Michigan. “I’m going to do it in February, and you’re going to free this town,” he said, and the audience received his comments with resounding applause.  

What happened with Michigan’s Gotion plan

Although the media reported otherwise, Gotion’s Michigan project never got off the ground. In September, due to outstanding lawsuits and other issues, the state of Michigan notified the company that it was in default. 

The state had pledged $175M in state tax funds to support Gotion coming to Michigan. The state purchased 270 acres for the company for $23 million and now says it will seek to recover that amount from Gotion.

“This is not the outcome we hoped for,” the Michigan Economic Development Corporation said Thursday in a statement.

TMA encourages donations to fight Gotion

If you are interested in donating to the legal expenses of this battle, do so online at this link: https://www.nogotion-illinois.com/donate/

Or mail a check to:

Concerned Citizens of Manteno

PO Box 405

Manteno, IL 60950

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By TMA News Editor Fran Eaton