Woke crony capitalist, weak governor challenge South Carolina sovereignty as corporate welfare scheme collapses...
Earlier this year, crony capitalist carmaker Scout Motors - a subsidiary of über-woke Volkswagen - went in search of yet another massive, market-distorting handout from the state of South Carolina. Two years earlier, Scout received a staggering in taxpayer-funded subsidies from the Palmetto State to build its massive manufacturing facility near Blythewood, S.C.
That facility has yet to produce a single vehicle for sale, incidentally.
Hardy challenged the mad stampede to approve the huge subsidies, arguing politicians and the public "haven't been given the time or the opportunity to hear both sides of the issue."
Sadly, McMaster ignored these voices of reason and cajoled lawmakers into plowing forward with a bad investment - one likely to leave a massive scar on our economic landscape and a massive hole in state coffers. In the intervening years, those who stood against the Scout subsidies have been proven prophetic as the nation's electric vehicle market has collapsed.
This year's second quarter electric vehicle (EV) sales plummeted when compared to April through June of last year, per new data released by Cox Automotive. Cox also reduced its EV sales forecast for 2025 from to of the market, noting "the growth trajectory has been curbed."
Even worse? This industry is poised for a full-on "collapse" in the fourth quarter - with a government-backed consumer tax incentive and related "leasing loophole" both set to expire on September 30, 2025.
In other words, this is the absolute worst time to undertake a government-subsidized EV investment.
The fallout from this ongoing collapse can already be seen across the Palmetto State's heavily subsidized EV marketplace. In May, Chinese-owned Volvo halted production at its Ridgeville, S.C. facility - blaming U.S. president Donald Trump's tariffs. However, subsequent reporting from FITSNews revealed the issue was actually a supply chain dispute - one further threatening the company's already dramatically scaled back production of the all-electric EX90 sport utility vehicle.
Volvo's plant -- previously hailed as a crown jewel of the state's economic development portfolio -- has consistently failed to meet production goals and employment targets. In April, prior to the supply chain snafu, of the facility's workforce was laid off.
More recently, in June of this year AESC - a Japanese-owned electric vehicle battery manufacturer - paused construction on its taxpayer-subsidized facility in Florence, S.C. That plant was supposed to create new jobs. Another AESC facility in Florence - which promised to create jobs - was scrapped altogether in February due to reduced demand.
AESC claims it will still meet its promised target of jobs at the original facility, but it's not immediately clear how it intends to do so given the prevailing headwinds. Volvo, in the meantime, is moving in the wrong direction on its promise to create jobs in Ridgeville - topping out at nearly before beginning the recent layoffs.
Despite all of this, Scout continues to come to Columbia, S.C. with its hand out...
Scout's latest corporate welfare request - also pushed by McMaster - sought to give the EV maker an undeserved leg-up on its competitors by ensconcing it as the only vehicle manufacturer permitted to bypass the Palmetto State's established dealer marketplace. The still-pending bill - H. 3777 - would allow direct auto sales in South Carolina for companies which "own and operate a manufacturing factory or assembly plant" in the Palmetto State, companies which "manufacture or assemble vehicles propelled wholly or in part by an electric motor" and companies which have "no franchised dealers in this state in the ten-year period before this item became effective."
In other words, just Scout.
To their credit, lawmakers refused to advance the bill - prompting McMaster to now seek an end-around via the federal courts. Talk about desperation, right? You read that right: after failing to convince state lawmakers to rig the state's auto market in favor of a woke corporation in a taxpayer-subsidized marketplace, McMaster is now trying to get the federal government to sue the state to carry out the carveout.
Specifically, McMaster's spokesman told The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier the governor hopes the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will find the Palmetto State's dealer market to be in violation of the Commerce Clause - a provision of the U.S. Constitution which allows congress to intervene in economic disputes "among the several states."
Scout is pushing the legal challenge - further proving its ability to make good on the lofty promises accompanying its handout is wholly dependent on this market-distorting carveout.
Which, incidentally, is now dependent on a threat against the state...
Scout is clearly desperate - caught in a downward market spiral that could very well take down an entire industry. Its tactics are also growing increasingly tiresome to its erstwhile supporters, many of whom are making it clear the company's free ride has come to an end. Several lawmakers who supported Scout's 2023 handout have privately told FITSNews they regret their votes - and are not inclined to do the company any additional favors.
This latest fiasco involving Scout raises several key questions...
Why is South Carolina continuing to fund this project? Could Scout Motors' Blythewood facility be the Palmetto State's next multi-billion dollar command economic boondoggle? Why is McMaster so insistent on doing Scout's bidding? Is yet another costly economic development failure to be his legacy?
Also... how did McMaster, who has never accomplished much as a businessman, so badly misread the writing on the wall regarding the EV market? How did he miss a widespread economic collapse that even low-rent tarot card readers could see coming a mile away?
As the media outlet which exposed Scout's latest scam, count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised as we seek answers to these important questions...
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.