Manufacturer Aspen Aerogels Inc. canceled plans to construct a $325-million plant in Statesboro, Ga., it told investors Feb. 12. Donald Young, CEO of the Northborough, Mass.-based company, says it will instead focus on “maximizing capacity” at its existing manufacturing plant in Rhode Island.

Aspen had planned to produce thermal barriers for electric vehicle batteries at the 500,000-sq-ft plant on a 90-acre site in southeast Georgia. New York-based Turner Construction Co. was the contractor. A Turner representative did not immediately respond to an emailed inquiry on Presidents Day. 

“We are taking decisive actions to navigate an evolving environment,” Young said during a call with investors.

Aspen will relocate some equipment from the canceled project to upgrade and expand the Rhode Island plant, according to the company. 

The announcement comes after automakers reported slower-than-expected EV demand and as the administration of Pres. Donald Trump pulls back Biden-era policies that supported EVs. One of Trump's executive orders on the first day of his new term revoked a 2021 Biden order that set a non-binding goal of having EVs account for half of new cars sold in the U.S. by 2030. And a Feb. 6 Federal Highway Administration memo informed state transportation officials that it was suspending a $5-billion program providing funding for EV chargers. 

Aspen had previously planned to open the plant in 2024, but executives later told investors that they had been able to contract out for some material, allowing for a later start of plant operations. Now it says it can meet long-term demand by expanding capacity at its East Providence, R.I., plant and relying on external manufacturing as needed. 

“In early 2023, pre-empting a reset in EV demand expectations, we decided to right-time the construction of our planned second aerogel manufacturing facility in Statesboro, Georgia, and subsequently ramped up our external manufacturing capacity for our energy industrial business,” said Ricardo Rodriguez, CFO and treasurer at Aspen, in a statement. 

Aspen is not the only company to recently call off a plant project in Georgia. In late January, solar and battery storage manufacturer Freyr Battery also canceled its $2.6-billion project in Coweta County, Ga.