When Volvo Cars picked Berkeley County in 2015, state and local officials promised a $204 million incentive package, The Post and Courier reported at the time. State grant records show a $106 million grant for site preparation and infrastructure, tied to 2,000 jobs and $600 million in investment.

A decade later, the state says Volvo delivered. The S.C. Coordinating Council for Economic Development, the panel that awards and polices state grants, certified that Volvo created 2,612 jobs and invested $950.4 million, according to its annual report for 2025. The state has paid out $97.7 million of the grant. The carmaker got more time to get there: in 2023 the council extended its deadline to Dec. 31, 2024, without changing the requirements. Volvo must now keep its jobs and investment in place for a 10-year maintenance period.

Volvo’s record is one entry in a Charleston Business Report review of the council’s last three annual reports and published accounts of the region’s biggest deals. The reports follow each grant through its performance and maintenance periods, including the ones that came up short.

The big bets that paid out

Mercedes-Benz Vans’ grant for its North Charleston van plant was approved at $14 million in 2015, according to the council’s report for that year; the council’s 2024 report lists the award at $16.5 million. The council closed it in 2024 after the company met its requirements, reporting 1,311 jobs against 1,300 required and $401.2 million invested against $400 million.

Century Aluminum received a $700,000 grant in 2021 for building improvements at its Mount Holly smelter near Goose Creek. It reported 134 jobs against 79 required and $84.7 million in investment against $58.7 million, and began a five-year maintenance period in 2023, the council said.

Boeing, the region’s original big bet, does not appear in these reports. In 2009, lawmakers approved up to $170 million in low-interest economic development bonds plus tax breaks, contingent on Boeing investing $750 million and creating 3,800 jobs within seven years, The Associated Press and The Post and Courier reported. In 2013 the state committed $120 million more as Boeing pledged $1 billion and 2,000 jobs over eight years, The Post and Courier reported.

Boeing employed 7,864 people in South Carolina as of early 2024, according to its workforce report as cited by The Post and Courier. That December it announced another $1 billion and 500 jobs, the Commerce Department said. In September, The Post and Courier reported that Boeing is hiring more than 1,000 workers as it raises 787 production.

The case for the deals

Supporters point to results like those. Of 289 council grants awarded since 2015 that have closed or reached maintenance, companies created 115% of the jobs and 139% of the investment required, the 2025 report says.

South Carolina provided about $1 billion in incentives to land Boeing, The Post and Courier reported in 2024, citing an analysis for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond by economist Adam Scavette. Scavette wrote that estimates of the package ranged from $800 million to $1 billion. His analysis suggested Boeing’s presence raised overall employment in the Charleston region by 6% and wages by 3%, the newspaper reported.

“South Carolina and we have put together a deal that offers incentives to us but asks us to perform against those incentives,” Boeing’s then-CEO Jim McNerney said on an April 2013 earnings call, according to the newspaper.

“It’s a competitive package, it’s not overwhelming what we’re coming up with,” state Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Goose Creek, a member of the legislative committee that reviewed Volvo’s package, said in 2015. “I look at incentives as an investment in the future,” he said, according to The Post and Courier. The newspaper calculated at the time that the package would cost at least $51,000 per job.

The biggest open question

Redwood Materials is the big deal with the least public information about results. In December 2022, after the legislature’s Joint Bond Review Committee recommended it, the state authorized up to $226 million in general obligation bonds to buy and prepare the battery recycler’s site at Camp Hall Commerce Park, the Commerce Department said. Its total incentives came to roughly $300 million, The Post and Courier reported.

In exchange, Redwood promised a $3.5 billion campus and 1,500 jobs. A company executive said then that it planned to employ 1,500 people within eight years, the newspaper reported. Instead of property taxes, Redwood agreed to pay Berkeley County and its school district $9 million to $30 million a year for 30 years, depending on how much it builds, Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb said at the time.

“This one project generates the same revenue as 7,500 homes assessed at $225,000,” Cribb said, according to the newspaper.

Redwood said in November 2025 that an undisclosed number of workers had started recovering metals at the site, The Post and Courier reported, and it dropped plans to make copper foil for battery anodes there, according to a Bloomberg News report cited by the newspaper.

When companies fall short

The council’s reports also show what happens when promises go unmet. Grants carry clawback terms, and companies that miss their targets can owe money back.

Robert Bosch received a $500,000 grant in 2016 for its Dorchester County plant tied to 150 new jobs. It invested more than required but reported no new jobs and repaid $250,000, according to the 2024 report.

The same report shows Scout Boats in Summerville created 112 of 371 required jobs and repaid $122,500. T-Mobile reported 280 of 400 jobs at its Charleston County site and repaid $37,500. JW Aluminum in Berkeley County created 22 of 50 jobs and repaid $140,000. All three invested more than their agreements required.

Vigilent Labs, a Charleston County project, was awarded $1 million in 2020 on the promise of 404 jobs and $104.6 million in investment. It drew $23,751 and reported no jobs, and that amount was still owed at the end of 2025 and had been referred to a state Department of Revenue collection program, the 2025 report says.

Statewide, the council collected $940,716 in repayments in 2025 and wrote off or waived four repayments totaling $352,475.

What the records don’t show

The grant reports leave out much of the public cost. They do not cover the county fee agreements that replace property taxes for many large plants, the job development credits companies claim against withholding taxes, which the council reports separately, or bond packages like those for Boeing and Redwood.

Volvo’s next test is keeping its numbers up through the maintenance period. It is adding the XC60 SUV to the Ridgeville line, and employment is expected to double to about 4,000 under that expansion, The Post and Courier reported in June. Century, which has been investing $50 million to restart idle capacity at Mount Holly, said in 2025 that the restart was subject to confirmation of incentives from Berkeley County and the state, without giving amounts.

How we reported this

We reviewed the Coordinating Council for Economic Development’s annual reports for 2023, 2024 and 2025, which list grant amounts, job and investment requirements and results by company, and its 2015 report for the original Mercedes-Benz Vans award; S.C. Department of Commerce announcements for Redwood Materials and Boeing; Adam Scavette’s analysis for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; and Post and Courier and Associated Press reporting from 2009, 2013, 2015, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026 on the incentive packages for Boeing, Volvo and Redwood, Century Aluminum’s restart, Redwood’s opening, Volvo’s expansion and Boeing’s hiring.