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Major sustainable manufacturing company expands in Henderson County

Henderson County
Photo via Canva
A photograph of the courthouse in Henderson County, where BorgWarner is expanding its manufacturing capacity and adding nearly 400 jobs.

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

BorgWarner, a global advanced manufacturing company with a facility in Henderson County, announced a $100 million expansion there this week. The move is supported by a $3.6 million Job Development Investment Grant from the state Economic Investment Committee. According to a press release from Gov. Josh Stein’s office, the state hopes to see a return on investment to the tune of $1 billion in the state’s economy from the subsidy.

The expansion will create 378 jobs to the county, with an average salary of $67,000, well above the county’s average, according to the release. This move also adds 140,000 square feet onto its Hendersonville site. Brittany Brady, president of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development, said the state grant is subsidizing the project in exchange for the promise that it will create future revenue from job creation and other investments.

“The state of North Carolina has a statute around what can be allowed for incentive, and in Henderson County, we exercise that opportunity,” Brady said. “It's a performance-based incentive in which the client must create a certain number of jobs at a specified wage and make investments over a scheduled period of time.”

The announcement comes after BorgWarner said in October that it would be building a new campus in Henderson County, in addition to the one in Arden.

BorgWarner makes advanced technologies that help a variety of industries be more efficient and sustainable. The expanded facility will focus on the manufacturing of power cells, which can support energy-consuming industries, such as data centers, said Brady. BorgWarner this winter announced an agreement with TurboCell, a data center infrastructure developer, to manufacture these power cells to meet data center energy demand.

BorgWarner’s expansion comes amid a time of market uncertainty around clean energy jobs in the state, particularly electric vehicle manufacturing, according to a report from clean energy research firm Atlas Public Policy. North Carolina has historically been at the forefront of clean energy investment in the United States. The report shows that while the state ranks third for clean energy investment in the country, it had the dubious honor of having the most clean energy manufacturing cancellations nationally during the first quarter of 2026.

BorgWarner declined an interview for this article, but in a press release company President and CEO Joseph F. Fadool said, “BorgWarner is proud to continue to invest in the state of North Carolina to bring new technologies to market and provide jobs to local residents.” He added, “We appreciate the grant and continued support from the state of North Carolina to expand our manufacturing footprint here in the United States.”

Katie Myers is BPR's Climate Reporter.