By Michael Randle

President Joe Biden’s chief economic advisor met with Nashville community leaders last quarter to tout federal investments in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing and technology.

Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the combined impact of Biden economic initiatives since 2021 spurred $15 billion in private investment across Tennessee. “Tennessee’s a great example of the president’s economic plan in action – attract private investment and create regional industrial hubs, including in Tennessee, for high-wage, high growth industries of the future,” Rouse said. “In 2021, Tennessee’s overall economy grew 9 percent in real terms − the fastest rate in four decades. In the first three quarters of 2022, Tennessee’s GDP grew more than 2 percentage points faster than that of the U.S. economy as a whole.” – The Tennessean

But it is not just Tennessee that has seen monumental gains from the next generation electric vehicle industry. Almost every state in the South – specifically its rural regions – has seen the same gains (some more than others) since the end of 2020. In fact, our tally of electric vehicle and EV-related projects totals more than $286 billion (that’s with a “B”) since January 1, 2021.

Let’s take a broad look at what this new industry has created in jobs and where in the South to date they have been announced. Of course, these are announcements, and about 38 percent of the projects have actually begun hiring as of the spring quarter of 2023. Yet several, including both Ford EV projects in Kentucky and Tennessee, are well under construction, including some suppliers to those two massive facilities.

Spring 2023

Ascend Elements – 100 jobs – Covington, Ga. – Lithium-ion recycling

Microvast – 562 jobs – Hopkinsville, Ky. – EV parts

6K Energy – 230 jobs – Jackson, Tenn. – EV battery materials

Rivian – 218 jobs – Bullitt County, Ky. – EV parts

 

Winter 2023

Toyota Boshoku – 157 jobs – Hopkinsville, Ky. – EV parts

Albemarle – 300 jobs – Chester County, S.C. – EV parts

Cirba Solutions – 300 jobs – Richland County, S.C. – EV parts

Microvast – 290 jobs – Clarksville, Tenn. – EV batteries

PHA – 400 jobs – Chatham County, Ga. – EV parts

Seoyon E-HWA – 740 jobs – Chatham County, Ga. – EV parts

Samkee – 170 jobs – Tuskegee, Ala. – EV parts

 

Fall 2022

Hyundai Mobis – 400 jobs – Montgomery, Ala. – EV battery parts

Hyundai and SK – 3,500 jobs – Bartow County, Ga. – EV batteries

Hyundai Mobis – 1,500 jobs – Bryan County, Ga. – EV parts

FREYR Battery – 723 jobs – Coweta County, Ga. – EV batteries

Joon Georgia – 630 jobs – Bulloch County, Ga. – EV parts

Canoo – 500 jobs – Oklahoma City, Okla. – Electric vehicles

 

Summer 2022

Toyota – 1,500 jobs – Randolph County, N.C. – EV batteries

Mercedes- Benz – 1,000 jobs – Tuscaloosa County, Ala. – Electric vehicles

Ascend Elements – 400 jobs – Hopkinsville, Ky. – EV parts

Bosch – 350 jobs – Anderson, S.C. – EV fuel cells

Nippon Denkai – 100 jobs – Augusta, Ga. – EV parts

 

Spring 2022

Hyundai – 8,100 jobs – Bryan County, Ga. – Electric vehicles

Envision AESC – 2,000 jobs – Bowling Green, Ky. – EV batteries

Hyundai – 300 jobs – Montgomery, Ala. – Electric vehicles

 

Winter 2022

Vinfast – 7,500 jobs – Chatham County, N.C. – Electric vehicles

GreenPower Motor – 900 jobs – Charleston, W.Va. – Electric buses

Envirotech – 800 jobs – Osceola, Ark. – Electric trucks

Aspen Aerogels – 250 jobs – Bulloch County, Ga. – EV parts

Alkegen – 250 jobs – Irving, Texas – EV parts

Proterra – 200 jobs – Spartanburg, S.C. – Electric buses

Arrival – 150 jobs – Charlotte, N.C. EV parts

 

Fall 2021

Ford and SK – 6,000 jobs – Stanton, Tenn. – Electric vehicles and batteries

Ford and SK – 5,000 jobs – Glendale, Ky. – EV batteries

Mercedes-Benz – 600 jobs – Tuscaloosa County, Ala. – Electric vehicles

Rivian – 7,500 jobs – Morgan, Walton Counties, Ga. – Electric vehicles and batteries

GM and Ultium Cells – 1,300 jobs – Spring Hill, Tenn. – Electric vehicles and batteries

NOVONIX – 300 jobs – Chattanooga, Tenn. – EV batteries

Canoo – 1,000 jobs – Pryor, Okla. – EV battery parts

Oshkosh Defense – 1,000 jobs – Spartanburg, S.C. – Electric vehicles

Volvo – N/A – Berkeley County, S.C. – Electric vehicles

 

Spring 2021

Duckyang – 285 jobs – Braselton, Ga. – EV parts

Mullen Technologies – 400 jobs – Memphis, Tenn. – EV parts

 

Winter 2021

Tesla – 5,000 jobs – Austin, Texas – Electric vehicles

Hitachi Automotive – 200 jobs – Berea, Ky. – EV parts

Microvast – 287 jobs – Clarksville, Tenn. – EV batteries

By Michael Randle

You know the drill, right? Some media property publishes the “Best Of” series and Southern Living followed the crowd recently with its “South’s Best Cities of 2023.” Knowing Southern Living’s history, though, their piece, “The South’s Best Cities,” was most likely the first ranking of its kind back in the day.

When it comes to the South’s lifestyle stories, then and now, Southern Living was what you read. Now, there is Charleston-based Garden & Gun.

Southern Living is a Birmingham, Ala.-based publishing business, founded by Emory Orgustus Cunningham in 1966. Progressive Farmer was the publication that helped launch Southern Living. Progressive Farmer was first published in 1886.

Progressive Farmer is among the oldest and most widely read of the nation’s agricultural periodicals. The history of the publication reflects dramatic changes in Southern rural life and journalism. The paper was founded in Winston (now Winston-Salem, N.C.) in February 1886 by Leonidas L. Polk, a former Confederate officer and North Carolina commissioner of agriculture.

Southern Living has been owned by several different companies, such as Southern Progress and Time, Inc., when that conglomerate bought all of Southern Living’s media assets in 1985, including titles such as Cooking Light, Health and Coastal Living. Southern Living is now owned by IAC’s Dotdash Meredith.

Here is an excerpt of an article written and published by the New York Times when Emory Cunningham, the founder of Southern Living, died in Birmingham in January of 2000.

“Emory Orgustus Cunningham, a publishing executive who served up recipes for sweet potato pie and a rosy view of a new suburban South emerging from the region’s rural poverty and decades of racial strife, died of pneumonia on Monday in Birmingham, Ala., where he lived. He was 78.

“Mr. Cunningham launched his Martha Stewart-like vision of a glossy new Dixie in 1966 in a magazine called Southern Living. Its circulation grew from an initial 200,000 to 2.5 million.

“The magazine was acquired, with its sister publications, by Time Inc. in 1985. At the time, the price was the largest ever paid for a publishing company.” — New York Times, January 28, 2000.

Okay, so that’s enough about Southern Living’s history, which is a noted one. Let’s get back to the publication’s “The South’s Best Cities of 2023.”

On the list are the modern-day standards, you know, successful Southern MSAs that are great places to live, work and operate a business.

Richmond, Va., the old-line, blue-blood of the group, came in 20^th place, or at the end of Southern Living’s ranking. Richmond was followed by Bentonville, Ark., at 19, which is growing its own Southern blue-blood population base since it is home to Walmart and much of the Walton family.

Huntsville, Ala. made Southern Living’s “Best Cities” in the South list, as did Dallas, Fort Worth, Orlando, Charlotte, Raleigh and Austin. Okay, you get it, right? Just another list of cities that readers kind of go, “Well, we’ve read that before.”

What impressed us? Birmingham, Alpharetta, Ga., Chattanooga, Greenville, S.C., and New Orleans ranked in the top 10 of the media property’s list.

Then the usual boilerplate rankings appeared. You know Nashville, Atlanta (how can any author list “Alpharetta, Ga.” – an Atlanta suburb – and “Atlanta” on the same list?). Then there was Asheville, followed by Savannah and Charleston at No. 2 and No. 1, respectively.

The North Charleston-Charleston, S.C., MSA and the Savannah MSA are rocking with huge economic development announcements such as Hyundai, Volvo, Boeing and the like. But to Southern Living, I guess they were just looking at pretty places. It’s always about the methodology, right?

Here is a sample of what was published in Southern Living in their latest “The South’s Best Cities of 2023.”

“Set your sights on these cities, and you’ll be in for a trip filled with the best museums, restaurants, shopping districts, and parks the region has to offer. Pack your bags and embark on a trip to one (or all!) of these treasured communities. You simply can’t go wrong with a trip to one of the South’s best cities.”