Canadian auto maker says Fort Worth on list for a plant that would bring 200 new jobs
Electra Meccanica is a Canadian car company with United States roots that wants to re-establish its presence.
The Fort Worth area is one of the places the Vancouver company is eyeing to build its first automotive plant in the United States, where it is expected to hire 200 workers.
Electra Meccanica sells an electric, 3-wheeled, single-passenger vehicle it calls the Solo. Fort Worth is on a short list of seven locations out of hundreds company officials have evaluated as possible sites to assemble the Solo.
Regions also on the short list include Phoenix; Denver; Orlando-Central Florida; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Nashville. Electra Meccanica is considering these locations on a regional basis, rather than individual cities, said Tom Stringer, head of site selection and business incentives practice for BDO, the company helping with the search.
“We’re taking a regional approach, so we will be open minded,” Stringer said. “For a project of this scope and type, you pretty much have to be in this day and age.”
There was no application process that city officials could access to be considered to get on this short list, Stringer explained. Locations that met the initial criteria of what Electra Meccanica needed were evaluated and then whittled down to these seven finalists, Stringer said.
Once that was done, the cities were notified that they were viable candidates and seemed like a good fit, Stringer said.
Now staff working with the site-selection process will drill down on the details and pick a primary location and perhaps an alternate, according to Stringer.
Stringer declined to comment on what incentives might be attractive or what type of help these areas might offer to Electra Meccanica that could move a region to the top of that list.
Electra Meccanica is looking at the composition and location of the talent pool in each of the regions that have been chosen, and Stringer said that identifying a viable talent pipeline will be a big part of the site selection process.
The degree programs being offered at colleges and universities in the area and the STEM programs available at area high schools, as well as the availability and locations of skilled people currently working in the field will be among several factors to be considered during the process, Stringer said.
In addition to being an assembly plant, the location will also house a research and development hub where people will work to improve the existing product, Stringer said. In time, other vehicle models may also be produced at the new plant, he said.
Company officials will consider already existing structures that can be refurbished and greenspace for new construction, Stringer said. How fast the construction would be completed would depend on what site is chosen, and whether the site would require new construction or retro-fitting would dictate when the plant would actually open.
A decision on a final location is expected to take place in the latter part of 2020, Stringer said.
Robert Sturns, director of the Fort Worth economic development department, said the city has done a lot of work figuring out what the industries of the future will be and how to make itself attractive to those industries. Electra Meccanica is the type of company that work is poised to serve, according to Sturns.
Fort Worth is part of a compact region and has worked with institutions across the region on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and he is confident the officials with Electra Meccanica will be able to find all the workers they need, Sturns said.
Fort Worth has the available vacant land and a number of already existing structures as well as buildings under development to make an attractive presentation that will accommodate whichever direction the company wishes to take, according to Sturns.
But it is still too early to know whether the city might be willing to offer incentives to make its presentation more attractive to the auto manufacturer, Sturns said. That has not yet been discussed, he said.
“We’re looking forward to this opportunity,” Sturns said. “There are a number of options that we will be able to present to this company.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 2:20 PM.
