By Josh Weinhold, Truth Staff
jweinhold@etruth.com
ELKHART -- Seemingly in the blink of an eye, Think North America Inc. and the electric cars it manufactures are here.
Though it arrived in Elkhart in an instant, local and state leaders see the new vehicle technology maintaining a lasting presence in the city -- and the region.
"This is a huge positive, a huge moment for our state," Gov. Mitch Daniels said. "This may well be the defining new technology in transportation."
Top executives and a number of politicians gathered Tuesday to announce that the newly acquired facility on Elkhart's Magnum Drive will house Think's first North American factory. The company's small-but-sleek electric cars are already on European roads, and will make their stateside debut once production begins in early 2011.
More than 400 people will be hired, according to documents filed with the city, including about 100 by this time next year. Think, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwegian car maker Think Global, plans to spend $55 million on machinery and equipment for its new facility and another $1.2 million on improving the property itself.
"We're going green and diversifying at the same time," Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore said. "Exactly what we've been looking for."
No hard feelings
For months, it appeared that Middlebury was destined to be the home of Think's new plant, but negotiations with the property owner broke down just a few days ago.
The company quickly turned to its back-up site, a 205,000 square-foot building on 12.7 acres on the east side of Elkhart. The Magnum Drive facility was the former home of Philips Products, which until mid-2009 employed 250 people and made windows and doors for recreational vehicles.
The Elkhart County Council had already approved a tax abatement for the company, but now that Think has located in Elkhart, the city will be the one offering the incentives.
No hard feelings remain in county government, officials said, since the jobs and development are staying here.
"It really doesn't make any difference whether this facility goes in the city or the county," said John Letherman, county council president. "As long as it's in Elkhart County somewhere."
The way forward?
State and local officials, meanwhile, said they are fully prepared to jump on the electric vehicle bandwagon. For an area crippled by unemployment and coping with a struggling RV industry, a new type of manufacturing offers an intriguing way forward.
Daniels, for one, said Think's announcement was an "historic" move and that Indiana can soon become the "state of electric vehicles." If that holds true, he said, Elkhart County will become that new state's capital.
"I think the possibility of growth in demand for a vehicle like that could mean we're back here in a couple or few years," the second-term Republican said, "with a similar or larger announcement."
As the county began to fall into a recession and unemployment numbers climbed, experts and local leaders said diversification was the key to rekindling success. No longer could the area rely on one industry to drive growth -- instead, multiple operations in multiple fields had to fill that void.
Think, along with fellow local electric vehicle makers Electric Motors Corp. and Navistar International Corp., look somewhat similar to existing Elkhart industry. They're making new, innovative types of vehicles -- but they're still vehicles, an often shaky business.
But civic officials say that isn't a cause for concern. Electric cars are an emerging technology, one that has proven to be profitable elsewhere and can do so here, as well.
"This is absolute diversification," U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, said. "This is a whole new technology that will have other suppliers come in. That technology will not only be in vehicles, but in other areas, too."
Where's the market?
Still, in order for electric cars and trucks to become a profitable industry here, there must be buyers, and lots of them.