Manufacturers Eyeing County: Car Factory Could Bring Some 300 Jobs
By Robert Boyer, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.
Jan. 18–Alamance County is a finalist for a $100-million car manufacturing plant that will employ about 300 people.
Martin Eberhard, the CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., confirmed Wednesday that the county is among “three or four places around the country” the electric car manufacturer is considering.
Alamance County is the lone North Carolina site being considered. The company will decide within several weeks where to put the plant, Eberhard says.
Eberhard, an electrical engineer, founded the San Carlos, Calif., company 3 1/2 years ago. Investors have committed $60 million, Eberhard said. About half of that comes from Tesla Chairman Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal.
The company’s first car, called Roadster, will be built at a Lotus plant in England and should roll off the line “late this year,” Eberhard says.
The totally electric sports car has created quite a buzz in automotive circles for its sleek look and potential performance. “It’s beautiful. It’s really fast.” It will retail for $92,000 and go from 0 to 60 in four seconds. Charges last for 250 miles. The car will use the energy equivalent of at least 135 miles a gallon, Eberhard said.
The company has received about 270 orders so far and will continue to build the Roadster in England. “There is a hunger for this kind of car now.” ALAMANCE COUNTY IS in the running for the plant that will build Tesla’s next car, known as White Star. The car will come in a couple of versions and sell for about $50,000. “Think highperformance sedan,” Eberhard said. “We’re already deep into production.” The goal is to produce 10,000 sedans a year by 2012.
County Commissioner Vice Chairman Dan Ingle, and commissioners Tim Sutton, Bill Lashley and Ann Vaughan said they didn’t know anything about the car company or its supposed plans until they were contacted by the Times-News.
An attempt to reach Commissioner Chairman Larry Sharpe was unsuccessful.
Incentives factor into where Tesla will locate the plant, but logistics are more important, Eberhard said.
“We’re looking at the entire cost of putting a plant in place.” Eberhard called the county’s labor force “high-quality.” State officials have been “especially cooperative,” but a lack of local, low-cost suppliers is a drawback.
The Triangle Business Journal has reported that officials in North Carolina and Arizona have each offered Tesla $15 million after Tesla spurned California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s offer of $20 million dollars in tax incentives.
State Department of Commerce spokeswoman Deborah Barnes refused to confirm or deny the supposed North Carolina offer, or whether state officials are talking to the carmaker.
“Traditionally we do not give grants to start-ups,” Barnes said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever given a start-up that much.” In a few cases, she said, the state has given grants to wellfinanced new companies that have located in “economically distressed” rural counties. Alamance County is in the middle tier of the three-tier system the state uses to rank the wealth of its 100 counties.
Tesla has opened an engineering office in Michigan. Eberhard is “trying not to entertain” any last-minute offers, but is impressed with a last-minute pitch from Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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