Crews from Columbia-based construction company working around-the-clock at massive Kansas battery plant site

This is an artist’s rendering of the $4-billion EV battery factory that’s being built by Panasonic Energy near Kansas City (November 2022 rendering courtesy of Panasonic Energy website)

A Columbia construction company is currently doing grading work at the future site of the multi-billion dollar Panasonic Energy EV battery plant in Kansas.

The $4-billion factory will be located in De Soto, Kansas, near Lenexa. Columbia-based Emery Sapp and Sons has been awarded a major contract for site preparation.

“Right now we’re doing all the grading work. Very fast schedule. We have, we’re running three shifts a day, so night and day around the clock,” Emery Sapp and Sons vice president Brian Burks says.

Panasonic says the project will make Kansas and the Kansas City region a key player in the domestic electric vehicle industry.

“Do the excavation and grading, get site level and then do all the utilities and pavements, so we can take it from road to front step,” Burks tells 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable.”

The plant site is about 30 miles from Kansas City. Panasonic predicts that the new plant in De Soto will add critical capacity to the domestic EV battery supply chain.

Click here to listen to 939 the Eagle host Fred Parry’s full interview with Mr. Burks.