MISHAWAKA — After a pause of nearly four years, vehicle production is expected to resume later this year in the former AM General plant that once built the Hummer H2.
Electric Last Mile Solutions aims to build an electric light-duty delivery vehicle in the plant beginning in the third quarter of this year. The company says it already has 45,000 non-binding pre-orders for the Class 1 vehicle.
“Our more than 45,000 pre-orders reflect the demand for fleet electrification and our value proposition of low-cost, reliable, connected and customized solutions,” James Tayor, co-founder and CEO of the Troy, Mich.-based company, said in a release.
“We’re excited by the anticipated first-to-market opportunities and thankful for the state of Indiana’s support as we look to begin production later this year,” he said.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has offered Electric Last Mile Solutions, or ELMS, up to $10 million in conditional tax credits, and up to $200,000 in conditional training grants based on the company’s job creation plans.
The IEDC also has offered up to $2.8 million in conditional tax credits from the Hoosier Business Investment tax credit program based on the company’s planned capital investment.
Although there are considerable companies aiming to get into the electric delivery truck market, ELMS says it will be first to market in the Class 1 category — meaning trucks or commercial vans weighing less than 6,000 pounds.
That category is currently dominated by commercial vans produced by Ford, Ram and Nissan, but the ELMS van will be the first that is powered by electricity, offering operational savings of about $19,000 during the life cycle of the vehicle, said Erik Grossman, director of communications for ELMS.
Federal tax credits and other incentives for electric vehicles will make the price of the ELMS van comparable to its competitors, but it will have the advantage of lower operational costs and more space, Grossman said.
The typical Class 1 commercial van offers about 125 cubic feet of cargo space, but the ELMS will provide 170 cubic feet — nearly the space of a Class 2 vehicle, he explained.
“We’re going to be about the same price as the competitions’ with more cargo volume,” he said. “That’s why we expect to attract Class 1 customers and some who normally look at Class 2.”
The customer base for such vans includes small business, cable companies, contractors and municipalities, but Grossman expects there will also be some interest among e-commerce and delivery companies.
The ELMS van will have a range of about 150 miles on a charge, which is nearly triple the average 45 to 60 miles such vehicles are used each day, Grossman said, adding that the vehicle can be recharged overnight when electric rates are lower.
ELMS is expected to become a publicly listed company on the Nasdaq in the second quarter. At that time, it will close on the purchase of the 675,000-square-foot plant with Seres Automotive.
Seres Automotive, the predecessor to SF Motors, spent millions of dollars upgrading the plant at 12900 McKinley Highway. It intended to build an electric crossover SUV there, but its plans eventually fizzled.
Government officials are hopeful that won’t happen again.
“My confidence is based on the people on the team and the partnerships,” said Bill Schalliol, executive director of economic development for St. Joseph County. “They’re also further out ahead with the product.”
Besides making use of a plant that is ready to operate and a local workforce with experience assembling vehicles, Grossman said, ELMS also is “leveraging existing platforms” — for example, parts needed to assemble the van.
He estimated that the company will initially hire 30 to 50 workers and that employment could reach 100 by the end of the year. If all goes according to plan, there could be 900 at the plant by 2025, when the company hopes to be producing 83,000 vehicles.
To achieve that goal, ELMS plans to unveil a Class 3 electric vehicle next year. It also aims to upfit vehicles to meet the needs of customers before they leave the Mishawaka plant.
The company has ambitious sales goals for the Class 1, as well as a Class 3 it plans to unveil next year.
The projected employment numbers would come close to matching the workforce at the plant during its heyday making the H2, which became infamous toward the end of its existence in 2009 for its massive size and 10 mpg fuel economy.
“It’s amazing how technology and mindsets have changed, and we went from building gas-hungry SUVs to 100% electric vehicles in the span of 20 years,” Schalliol said. “Not quite as dramatic as the shift from horse-drawn wagons to horseless carriages,” he said, referring to Studebaker, “but it is ironic that St. Joseph County is on the forefront of this type of automotive transformation again.”
