This weekend marked the one-year anniversary of the opening of GreenTech Automotive’s Horn Lake, Miss., plant, but the results have not matched the grandiose promises made by then-Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
McAuliffe pulled no punches when setting the expectations for the plant, saying the opening marked a "rebirth for American manufacturing."
With former President Bill Clinton and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour in attendance at the campaign-style event, McAuliffe said GreenTech was key to the future of the manufacturing industry.
"Too many people have given up on American manufacturing, saying manufacturing jobs are not coming back. But GTA set out to prove them wrong," McAuliffe said. "For too long, America has been inventing products here and sending the production jobs overseas."
At last July’s event, McAuliffe predicted that the plant could produce 10,000 cars in its first year.
The company is also bound by contract with Mississippi to create 350 jobs by next year because it accepted $5 million worth of state funding for the project. GreenTech currently claims 78 employees.
Investigators visiting GreenTech’s additional plant site in Tunica, Miss., found construction had stopped, leaving nothing at the site but gravel and overgrown grass.
McAuliffe is no stranger to falling short on grand promises.
Despite his stated position that the United States should not send manufacturing overseas, GreenTech in 2011 announced that it would be building a 500-acre site in Ordos, China.
McAuliffe spun the move as acceptable, stating, "because our core components will be made in America, we will create 2,000 new American jobs when we reach full production capacity."
McAuliffe himself quietly jumped ship last year, resigning from GreenTech in December 2012.