A stalled $1.62 billion EV battery plant in South Carolina is now the subject of a $26 million contractor fight. Chicago-based Clayco sued AESC Florence LLC on July 14 in Florence County, claiming the battery maker never paid the full balance for design and construction work already finished before the project froze. The suit puts a hard number on what happens when an EV megaproject stops mid-build.
What Clayco says it’s owed
Clayco was hired to design and build the entire facility. Then, in June 2025, AESC told the contractor it was suspending the project, citing ‘policy and market uncertainty’ around federal EV tax credits. Clayco’s last day on site was January 16, 2026. Its lawsuit alleges breach of contract, an unpaid mechanic’s lien and unjust enrichment, and it asks the court to foreclose on AESC’s lease of the county-owned land to recover the debt. AESC says it has invested more than $1 billion in Florence and expects ‘a timely resolution.’
Why the battery plant stalled
AESC broke ground in 2023 on what started as an $810 million plant, later expanded to a $1.62 billion commitment tied to 1,620 jobs. The factory was designed to feed battery cells to BMW for electric vehicles built up the road in Spartanburg. Completion was supposed to come by 2026. Instead, shifting federal support for EVs pulled the ground out from under the timeline, and the site went quiet.
A warning sign for EV megaprojects
This is the part builders should watch. Battery and EV plants drove a wave of industrial megaproject starts over the past three years, much of it underwritten by tax credits and incentives that Washington is now reworking. When the policy assumptions move, the pro forma moves with them, and contractors holding unpaid invoices are left to sort it out in court.
Florence County says its lease with AESC remains in effect and it still expects the plant to move forward eventually. Local station WMBF News first reported the filing. For more on how incentive-driven factory work is holding up, see our coverage of industrial builds like the Novelis Bay Minette aluminum plant. The gap between a groundbreaking press release and a finished plant has rarely looked wider.