In January, The Lever’s Amos Barshad traveled to Hardin County, Kentucky, to report on the growth of the electric vehicle industry in the South.
Hardin County is the home of an electric vehicle battery plant called BlueOval SK, a joint venture between the American car giant Ford and the South Korean battery company SK On. Since the passage of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act — which provided massive tax breaks to electric vehicle manufacturers — plants like BlueOval SK have sprouted up throughout the United States, creating thousands of jobs. But President Donald Trump, backed by 64 percent of Hardin County voters in the 2024 election, is vowing to stop the growth of the electric vehicle industry and could soon endanger the prospects for both BlueOval SK and its workers.
