TUNICA COUNTY, Miss. — Mullen Automotive in Tunica County rolled out its first electric commercial cargo vans and gave a select group of dignitaries and media a peek at production Thursday.

It is all happening in the facility once owned by GreenTech Automotive.

John Taylor, Senior VP of Global Manufacturing lead the first public tour of Mullen’s assembly plant in Tunica County.

“We’re opening the doors to everybody to see what we’re doing here in Tunica,” said Taylor. “So we’re building a Class 3 commercial vehicle. It’s a tilt forward cab, you see these on the road. This is an electric vehicle.”

Amid robotic carts, the sounds of torque wrenches and well-choreographed vehicle production are wide-eyed members of Tunica County’s Board of Supervisors.                

Pastor McKinley Daley, President of the Board, admits it’s hard to forget the “bad blood” created by GreenTech Automotive, which occupied this site for a short time, and went “belly-up” after receiving millions in County and State funding and never met expectations.

“It was just always, ‘we’re working on it, we’re working on this, we’re trying to get this done,’ and you say, ‘ok, when are you going to roll out the first car?’ and it was like, ‘well, we’re still working on it,'” said Daley.

Thursday’s tour provided up close proof Mullen is producing commercial cargo vans and offering smaller EV vans to consumers.

John Taylor doesn’t want to discuss GreenTech’s mistakes but rather focus on how Mullen plans to shake up the EV market.

“Most EV companies spend billions of dollars developing a passenger vehicle for the masses in the retail space. We are going commercial fleet-first,” said Taylor.

The State of Mississippi sought to recover more than six million dollars in loans from GreenTech after it failed to meet its commitments.

Mullen expects to add another 40 to 45 workers and plans to have a job fair next week in Desoto County.

The company initially was set to open a manufacturing facility employing 800 in Memphis. Financial incentives were approved in 2021, but the company chose to open in Tunica instead.