Global manufacturer of EV chargers moves into Tarrant County with plans for 700 jobs
An international electric vehicle charging manufacturer is planting its flag in North Texas.
Wallbox opened its first North American facility in Arlington on Thursday. The Barcelona-based company, which also provides energy management solutions, came with the promise to create 700 jobs by 2030, and will receive an estimated $1 million in tax incentives from the city of Arlington. The company says it is making a $70 million investment.
“There were some incentives, but we’re gonna reap tremendous dividends,” said Arlington Mayor Jim Ross. “Not just economically, but what they’re gonna be doing for the whole North American area.”
With a focus on sustainable energy, Wallbox is focused on meeting growing demand for electric vehicle charging in Texas. The company manufactures compact chargers for installation at home for customers to plug in their electric vehicles. It also recently began producing roadside public chargers for electric vehicles.
The Arlington facility will have the capacity to produce 250,000 chargers per year by the end of 2022 and more than 1 million units per year by the end of 2030.
Wallbox’s 80,000-square-foot facility at 2240 Forum Drive currently employs 50 people but expects to reach 250 jobs by 2025 and eventually 450 more in the five years following.
Incentives came in the form of a Chapter 380 agreement, meaning the company will be reimbursed for taxes after meeting business metrics including expectations for job creation.
“There’s definitely workforce metrics that are part of that,” said Douglas Alfaro, Wallbox’s general manager of North America. “We not only expect to meet them, but to exceed them. As we spoke with the city, for us, it was very critical to get off the ground. We just needed that small push to be able to increase our investments.”
The decision to expand manufacturing in Tarrant County was driven by the city of Arlington’s enthusiasm for the project and North Texas as a central hub, Alfaro said.
Tarrant County’s location allows Wallbox to reach all of the U.S. within a 72-hour window. Many delivery trucks are switching to electric power for long-range travel as delivering electric batteries by airplane can be dangerous, the company said.
The company’s expansion to Tarrant County comes at a time when demand for electric vehicles is growing across the state. This year, the Texas Department of Transportation released plans to place more charging stations for electric cars every 50 miles on most interstates to meet this increased demand as more Texans switch to electric vehicles.
Wallbox’s Hypernova charger, one of several to soon be assembled out of the Arlington plant, is capable of adding up to 100 miles of driving range in five minutes of charging. It was specifically designed to combat the lack of public chargers along key U.S. highway corridors and simplify long-distance traveling for electric-vehicle drivers, Alfaro said.
The factory is expected to begin production of public-charger Hypernova in 2023. It is currently producing Pulsar Plus EV chargers for at-home use that are universally compatible with all electric vehicles. The Pulsar Plus model starts at around $650 for home charging. The Quasar 2 model, capable of two-way charging, is also part of the Arlington factory product mix.
“Texas is a big state,” Alfaro said. “That means there’s a lot of roads to electrify. For us, being able to work closely with officials as well as the folks that are putting chargers in the ground is really meaningful and important.”
More than 60% of materials for Wallbox’s assembly facility come from domestic suppliers. Many are local Dallas-Fort Worth suppliers down the street from the new plant, Alfaro said. The scale of demand for electric vehicle chargers already present in the market could mean even greater expansion in the future, Alfaro said.
“Wallbox checks all the boxes,” said Ross, the Arlington mayor. “It’s a futuristic company that cares about our environment, that is considering what’s in store for us in the future, and how to help better us for our kids. It’s an economic development incentive to have them here.”
