Ford appears to be all in on electric vehicles (EVs), as it is working to expand its production of these vehicles for the future. Ford has been working on this since 2021 when the company said it would be putting around $11.4 billion toward EV development.
One thing that Ford wants to do is create a campus in Tennessee. The hope is that it will be a center for the production of batteries and electric trucks. But it’s going to cost about $5.6 billion to build. The benefit, in addition to producing the vehicles, is that it would create around 5,800 jobs for people in Tennessee.
In order to get these jobs, and for other reasons, the government said that they would give Ford around $884 million in incentives. Roughly $200 million of this is going to go toward road improvements and the construction of new roads to make this plant possible.
Taking land from farmers
The issue that has come up is that a new highway interchange is necessary for this manufacturing plant. In order to create the necessary roads, the state is attempting to use eminent domain on roughly 35 tracts of land. This land is currently owned by Tennessee farmers.
Some farmers who are involved say that they’re not being offered a fair market value. One man claims that the state offered him just over $8,000 an acre, but that his land is worth $200,000 an acre.
This underscores how problematic eminent domain issues can be for property owners and why disputes over financial compensation often arise. Those who are involved in this process must understand all the legal steps that they can take.