Navistar plans to produce 400 electric trucks.
Navistar plans to produce 400 electric trucks.

Marty Schladen, The Journal Gazette

mschladen@jg.net

The auto belt - including northeast Indiana - is in a race for the future.

As global efforts ramp up to create economical electric cars and trucks, area manufacturers and colleges are fighting for the lead.

"This is a case that Indiana can win, but we have to play hard," said James Caruthers, a Purdue University professor of chemical engineering on the West Lafayette campus.

Those hopes got a big boost last month when President Obama traveled to Elkhart County to announce a $2.4 billion grant program to move electric-vehicle technology down the road. Of that, $410 million will go to projects primarily in Indiana - including $39.2 million for Navistar Inc., which has a major engineering operation in Fort Wayne.

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