Where is De Soto? Here are 4 things to know about Kansas’ new Panasonic battery factory

This week Gov. Laura Kelly announced that the Japanese company Panasonic will be building a $4 billion factory in De Soto, Kansas. This factory will focus on building batteries for electric vehicles and will bring over 4,000 jobs to De Soto.

Here’s what you need to know about De Soto, Kansas, and the new Panasonic factory on the way.

Where is De Soto, Kansas?

De Soto is a small city in Johnson and Leavenworth counties. The city is northwest of Olathe and is about a 30 minute drive from Kansas City proper. It also sits along the south bank of the Kansas River. The town has a population of just over 6,300 people, according to 2021 estimates from the Census Bureau.

The Panasonic factory will be taking over the old 9,000 acre Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, which closed in 1992. In January, De Soto annexed 6,000 acres of land from the site, in preparation for the development of the Panasonic plant, The Star reported.

What is Panasonic?

Panasonic Holdings Corp. is a Japanese-based battery technology giant. The company is also a major supplier of electric batteries for Tesla Inc., according to Reuters. In addition to electric car batteries, the company is also behind solar energy products, supply chain solutions like factory robots and automation and the tech behind many household and lifestyle products like cameras and kitchen appliances.

The new facility will focus on lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. The company’s U.S. operations have shipped more than 6 billion of these kinds of electric vehicle batteries. The new De Soto plant is a part of a larger effort to expand that production as the market shifts toward more sustainable technology, according to a statement from Kelly.

How much will this new plant cost?

This development will be a $4 billion investment. The company itself is planning to invest several billion dollars into the De Soto factory. However, the state will also reimburse the company more than $829 million in incentives, including tax credits, refundable payroll tax incentives and grants.

It will be the state’s largest ever subsidy program aimed at recruiting business investments of $1 billion or more, The Star reported.

What kind of jobs will Panasonic bring to the Kansas City area?

The Panasonic plant will bring 4,000-plus jobs paying about $50,000 each to the region, The Star reported. The factory and its employees will be developing batteries that power electric vehicles.

The development is likely to bring an additional 4,000 jobs to the area, through suppliers and local businesses. There will also be temporary employment opportunities for the plant’s construction, according to a statement from Kelly.

“As the largest private investment in Kansas history and one of the largest EV battery manufacturing plants of its kind in the country, this project will be transformative for our state’s economy, providing in total 8,000 high quality jobs that will help more Kansans create better lives for themselves and their children,” Kelly said in a statement.

Editor’s note: The original version of the story incorrectly stated that Kansas is providing $1.3 billion in incentives instead of $829 million. That $1.3 billion was an early cost estimate from legislative researchers that The Star reported before the state provided details of the deal on Wednesday. Kansas is providing $829 million in incentives.

The Star’s Katie Bernard and Kevin Hardy contributed reporting.

If you have more questions about the new factory project, email kcq@kcstar.com