Panasonic Picks Kansas Over Oklahoma For North America's Second Largest Manufacturing Plant

Panasonic selected Kansas over Oklahoma to build North America’s second largest manufacturing plant.

“This is a day to celebrate,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, D, told reporters Wednesday. “We just landed the largest economic development project in the history of our state.”

The highly anticipated announcement comes after Oklahoma lawmakers offered the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic development incentives.

Oklahoma lawmakers were optimistic about the top secret multi-million dollar economic development plan only referred to as Project Ocean around the state capitol.

The Japanese company had been eyeing the Mid-American Industrial Park near Pryor, Oklahoma for a new electric vehicle battery factory.

The plans included more than 4,000 jobs and an estimated $26 billion economic impact.

Oklahoma lawmakers signed off on the LEAD Act in April, setting aside nearly $700 million to attract big companies like Panasonic.

The Kansas incentive package was more than a billion dollars.

Last month, Gov. Kevin Stitt told News 9 that despite the larger offer from our neighbor to the north, he remained optimistic.

In a statement, Stitt’s office said he remains confident in his strategy to attract companies to Oklahoma and "Oklahomans would be wise to not count us out just yet.”

Some reports indicate Panasonic may be considering a second plant.