Illinois plant’s battery production raises national security concerns
[August 05, 2025]
By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – A Chinese battery plant in Manteno, Illinois that
is getting state taxpayer support, isn’t producing electric vehicle
batteries, according to a village trustee. Instead, photos from local
critics and a Wirepoints report show the Gotion facility is making
batteries for data centers.
The revelation is raising new concerns about national security.
Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon warns that foreign-made components could
enable spying or shutdowns of critical internet infrastructure.
"The data farms are now critical and being built rapidly to meet the
growing demands of the internet. They’re essential to the internet
infrastructure,” said Glennon. “But we don’t know for sure what Gotion’s
plans are or where they’re investing their battery production, because
they never tell anyone. It’s a completely non-transparent company,
typical of Communist Party-connected firms."
Gotion did not respond to multiple requests for comment about their data
center battery production.
The plant, backed by $536 million in tax credits Gov. J.B. Pritzker
approved, was originally pitched as an electric vehicle battery
facility. At a recent village board meeting, Manteno Trustee CJ Boudreau
said Gotion isn’t making EV batteries and is instead producing
large-format batteries for data centers, with strong safety measures in
place.
“Right now, they’ve got two active lines, and a big misconception is
that they’re making EV batteries. They’re not. What they’re producing
looks more like big storage units, like what you’d see on the back of a
semi-truck,” said Boudreau. “There are two types of batteries, [lithium
iron phosphate] and [nickel manganese cobalt]. LFP is the safer one. It
burns at around 700 degrees, while NMC burns up to 1,500. LFP can be put
out with water, even submerged. These have fire suppressants inside each
unit and throughout the plant. They’re going above and beyond to make
sure it’s safe.”
Glennon said the threat is clear and far from a fringe or partisan
issue.
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Protesters in Manteno, Illinois, during a demonstration against tax
credits for Gotion, an electric vehicle battery manufacturer in 2023
BlueRoomStream
“One of the most high-profile warnings came from former Obama-era
CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who cautioned
that Chinese companies routinely embed spyware and backdoor kill
switches into their electronics,” said Glennon. “A recent Reuters
investigation even reported on remote shutdown capabilities in
Chinese-manufactured components, technology that could be deployed
to paralyze U.S. systems. That story got almost no attention in the
United States.”
Despite mounting bipartisan alarm, Illinois leadership remains
unfazed, according to Glennon.
“Nebraska, under a Democratic governor, recently passed and signed
legislation that completely bars state funds from going to companies
connected to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Glennon. “I just
don’t understand Pritzker’s fascination or why he ignores the
national security officials’ warnings about CCP tech companies.”
Gotion’s move away from EV production raises doubts about why the
state handed over taxpayer money in the first place. Illinois
promoted the project as part of a green energy and electric vehicle
push, but Glennon said the demand for EVs hasn’t lived up to the
hype.
“We were way out over our skis on this,” Glennon said. “People don’t
want EVs at the level projected, and they’re too expensive. The
market could handle it if there were real demand. We didn’t need to
throw hundreds of millions at it.” |
