EVE Energy makes U.S. Dept. of War’s roster of “Chinese military companies”

• EVE Energy is the technology partner in the nearly $2 billion joint venture that established Amplify Cell Technologies. Mississippi lawmakers approved incentives for what was referred to as “Project Poppy” in January 2024.

The U.S. Department of War has listed Chinese lithium iron phosphate battery maker EVE Energy as a “Chinese military company.”

The department’s 1260H list is an annually updated roster of “Chinese military companies” operating, directly or indirectly, in the United States. The Department of War is restricted from entering into a contract with an entity on the 1260H list.

EVE Energy has been part of a joint venture between Accelera by Cummins, Daimler Trucks & Buses, and PACCAR that established Amplify Cell Technologies. Amplify broke ground on a 21-gigawatt hour (GWh) factory in Marshall County, Mississippi, in June 2024 to produce battery cells for electric trucks.

EVE Energy serves as the technology partner in the joint venture with 10% ownership. 

Earlier this year, it was announced that Amplify had issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice on April 2, laying off 73 workers. It has also been made known that the investors have delayed the start of production at the Mississippi site until at least 2028. The move came after federal subsidies for electric vehicle purchases expired.

Construction crews are completing the facility but installation of the manufacturing equipment has been postponed for now. Notably, the Amplify website now shows “account suspended.”

“We agreed with our Amplify Cell Technologies joint venture partners to defer the installation of manufacturing capacity,” Daimler Truck President and CEO Karin Rådström said on the OEM’s first-quarter earnings call May 6.

EVE Energy’s inclusion on the Department of War’s latest “Notice of Availability of Designation of Chinese Military Companies” could further complicate matters.

EVE Energy is listed as being “directly and indirectly affiliated” with China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), an ad-hoc ministerial-level organization directly subordinated to China’s State Council. The Party Committee of SASAC performs the responsibilities mandated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

“EVE Energy is a military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base because it knowingly received assistance from the Government of China through science, technology, research, or industrial efforts initiated, granted, or created by, or provided under, or related to, the Chinese military industrial planning apparatus, or in furtherance of Chinese military industrial planning objectives, through its selection as a ‘Single Champion,'” the Department of War’s notice stated.

EVE Energy, founded in 2001, is headquartered in the Huizhou, Guangdong province in China.

The Department of War noted that the entities included on the 1260H list may request reconsideration of this decision.

About the Amplify Project

The nearly $2 billion joint Amplify Cell Technologies venture in Mississippi was expected to create more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs.

Mississippi lawmakers approved incentives for the project – referred to as “Project Poppy” – in January 2024. The package included a $186.7 million grant that included $120 million of “inside the fence” reimbursements, $40.7 million for land stabilization and pad construction, $24 million for training, and $2 million for Mississippi Development Authority implementation and state agency expediting fund. It also included $250,000 in mandatory State Auditor fees.

In January 2024, Governor Tate Reeves (R) stated that EVE Energy was a company out of China, but it was privately owned, not owned by the Chinese government. When asked about a foreign company being involved in the joint venture, the governor said America needs to work towards providing more jobs to Americans.

“At the end of the day, this is what America ought to be doing. For far too many years technology was developed in the United States and that technology was taken to China and manufactured in China. The reality is we need to bring jobs back to America and the way that you do that is the technology is owned by a private Chinese company, not one owned by the government… where we bring these jobs to America to make America great again through manufacturing excellence,” Reeves said.

READ MORE: Lawmakers approve economic development project for North Mississippi

Mississippi also committed to a 10-year, 100% corporate income tax exemption, sales and use tax incentive on goods for construction made 12 months post-construction, $123.4 million value of local public infrastructure commitment, and $127.4 million for Phase II of the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s Eastern interchange work plus access road, if traffic justifies it. In total, the project was to receive $482 million in bonded money.

State incentives for the project were performance-based, with Amplify to start production operations and hit employment milestones by 2031.