The automotive sector’s shift to electric vehicles is helping drive one of the biggest factory-building booms in the U.S. in years, according to multiple news sources.

The Wall Street Journal reports that about $33 billion in new auto-factory investment was pledged in the country across the first 11 months of 2022, adding to the $37 billion in new investments announced in 2021. The annual figure from the Center for Automotive Research shows a more than eightfold increase from two decades ago.

About two-thirds of the new auto investment revealed over the past two years is going to sites in the U.S. South, the data shows, tilting activity away from the Great Lakes region and creating a new eco-system of sector suppliers.

Meanwhile, National Public Radio reports that the think tank Atlas Public Policy recently tallied all the announced projects located in the United States, as part of research supported by an automaker trade alliance.

All told, the group counted more than $128 billion of announced investments into electric vehicle plants, battery plants and battery recycling.

In 2022 alone, companies announced more than $73 billion in planned projects — more than three times the previous record, set in 2021.