Auto industry moves South with electric vehicle factories; one rural town of 400 gets ready for 6,000 Ford workers

Business has picked up at Suga’s Diner in Stanton, Tenn.
(Photo by Andrea Morales, The Wall Street Journal)

How does a town of 400 people prepare for an influx of 6,000 additional residents? Stanton, Tennessee, is showing the way as the town readies for “all the people the Ford plant auto-complex build will bring,” reports Nora Eckert of The Wall Street Journal. Ford’s complex is a sign of the times: “The U.S. auto industry is accelerating its move south as car companies pour billions of dollars into new factories in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The shift is creating pockets of frenzied activity—and anxiety—for rural, southern towns bracing for new workers and residents.”

“Once fully operational, Ford’s 3,600-acre site is expected to employ about 6,000 workers, about 15 times Stanton’s current population,” Eckert writes. “Allan Sterbinsky, the mayor of Stanton, spends his days planning how the town—home to a barbecue restaurant, a Dollar General and a couple of cemeteries—will build thousands of new homes, expand the local school system and potentially establish a police force.” Sterbinsky told Eckert, “It’s tremendously overwhelming, just everything that has to be done.”

As America's shift to EVs gained momentum, the auto industry’s move South increased speed. “Auto companies have announced more than $110 billion in EV-related investments in the U.S. since 2018, with about half that sum destined for Southern states, according to the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit based in Ann Arbor, Michigan," Eckert adds. "Automakers are now rushing to construct assembly plants and battery-making facilities—some sitting on sites the size of 60 football fields.”

Location of Stanton in Haywood County,
Tennessee. (Wikipedia map)

For decades, Southern states have been setting the groundwork to attract automakers, “laying veins of waterways and electrical lines and shoveling heaps of dirt to prepare the land for potential new factory megasites," Eckert reports. "Local governments and technical institutes have partnered to train a new generation of manufacturing workers, including in automotive, even before some of the first construction beams were erected. "Ford Chief Jim Farley said one of the reasons the automaker based its manufacturing campus in Tennessee is because the Tennessee Valley Authority, an electricity company, is one of the largest clean-energy providers in the U.S. The state’s lower energy costs also attracted Ford there, he has said."

Meanwhile, folks in Stanton and surrounding towns of Haywood County, pop. 17,900, have their hands full. "The median household income in Haywood County, where the Ford complex is located, is about $40,000. One in five residents live in poverty," Eckert reports. Already some local restaurants and services are enjoying growth, but for some, Ford's presence has hurt their business. "Teknor Apex, a chemical producer and major employer in the county, was already struggling to find workers. . . . Many young people in the area end up leaving for better pay and a greater variety of opportunities elsewhere, draining the local talent pool."