A Michigan manufacturer of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, a key component in EV power electronics, just got a big loan from the US Department of Energy to ramp up production.
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Oil major CITGO is sticking its toe into the electrification pond: It’s launched its first-ever EV charger in Battle Creek, Michigan.
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Infant electric truck brand Scout Motors is expanding its US footprint, announcing plans for a new “Innovation Center” in Michigan that will become home to its R&D, design, and engineering, creating hundreds of new jobs in the area.
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The US’s first wireless charging public roadway has been installed in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood by the City, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and Electreon.
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Michigan has become the 12th state to pass landmark legislation that sets a 100% clean electricity deadline for utilities.
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The State of Michigan – which sees 30% of all truck and rail freight between the US and Canada pass through it – is going to build an electric truck stop with Daimler and DTE Energy.
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All of Detroit’s municipal buildings are going to be powered by neighborhood solar as part of the city’s efforts to combat climate change – check out the city’s cool grassroots plan.
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Contract manufacturing superpower Magna International announced it is investing over $500 million to erect two new manufacturing facilities and expand a third in the state of Michigan. The new and expanded Magna facilities will develop components specifically for the growing market of electric vehicles and are expected to create over 1,500 new jobs in Michigan.
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Graphex Technologies has entered into an exclusive non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form a joint venture with Emerald Energy Solutions to construct and operate a graphite processing facility in Michigan.
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LG Energy Solution is investing $1.7 billion and creating 1,200 jobs at its existing EV battery factory in Holland, Michigan. The expansion of the factory will quintuple its capacity to produce EV battery components.
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Michigan public utility Consumers Energy, which serves 6.7 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents, today announced that it will install 200 new electric vehicle chargers across the state by the end of 2023. And that includes 100 fast chargers.
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Tesla’s factory in Fremont is the only U.S. car assembly plant owned by an American automaker that is not represented by a union, but that’s just one of many things Tesla does unlike any other American (or otherwise) automaker.
Following the announcement of Tesla’s updated plans to increase its annual vehicle production at the factory to 500,000 cars by 2018 – 2 years earlier than previously planned, the United Auto Workers (UAW) expressed interest in unionizing Tesla’s workforce at the factory. One could look at the move as being opportunistic by the UAW to significantly increase its numbers or as a move to help protect workers it perceives being exploited by Tesla’s ever-expanding needs.
UAW President Dennis Williams said that up until now, the union was respecting Tesla’s startup status, but the new production rate would quickly make the electric automaker one of the largest car manufacturer in the nation and bigger than more established luxury automakers like BMW and Mercedes.
Williams is right that Tesla plans to quickly become as big as other automakers, but does higher volume alone justify the implementation of a union?
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Tesla first applied for a car dealership and repair license in Michigan over 6 months ago. The automaker reapplied again 3 months ago and the license still hasn’t been approved and the application is at a standstill at the Secretary of State’s Office.
The company appears to be at an impasse, Detroit News reports:
“In the most recent development, the Secretary of State’s Office put the automaker’s applications for dealership and service facilities at a standstill by requesting two weeks ago that the applicant submit proof it is a franchised dealer. If it doesn’t, the state will not rule on Tesla’s applications.”
The word “franchise” is the problem here. The application was made by the company and the state is aware of it. While a new bill that would allow Tesla to own a car dealership in the state has been proposed, the company didn’t have a good experience with the legislative process in Michigan before and it is now considering to bring the matter to the courts.
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According to a report over the weekend from Crain’s Detroit Business, Google/Alphabet is seeking an R&D site for its self-driving cars near Ann Arbor, Michigan. This report comes as FCC documents last month revealed that the Mountain View company was planning to bring the cars to four new cities. Kirkland, Washington officially became one of those locations two weeks ago, and as we noted, a location near Ann Arbor makes perfect sense to be one of the next bunch…
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In October 2014, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill, which was initiated by the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association, to “clarify” an existing law banning automakers from owning or operating car dealerships in the state, ultimately forcing them to go through a third-party franchise model.
The new bill effectively banned Tesla from selling cars in the state due to the company’s direct sales model. Today we learn that despite the ban, Tesla applied for a dealership license in Michigan.
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Google’s self-driving car project first came to Austin, Texas in July of last year, marking its first expansion outside of Google’s hometown of Mountain View, California. It was a logical next step, considering Austin’s forward-thinking political culture and unique environmental challenges (“pedicabs, pickup trucks, and everything in between,” Google said). Now, it appears—thanks to some recently-published FCC documents (via Mark Harris)—that Google has plans to bring the self-driving car program to four more mysterious cities…
Even though Tesla is not officially attending the Detroit auto show this week, the company managed to use the event to shine a light on the regulatory hurdles it is facing in the state of Michigan. Tesla’s vice president of business development Diarmuid O’Connell talked to MLive and confirmed that the company skipped the Detroit auto show this year because of Michigan’s direct sales law.
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Navigant Research recently named LG Chem the #1 leading supplier of batteries for electric vehicles. The company has been a longtime partner of GM for the production of the Chevy Volt and it recently attracted interest from other electric vehicle makers such as Nissan and Tesla.
Those manufacturers plan to introduce several mass market electric vehicles in the coming years and if LG wants to keep its lead, it will need to significantly increase its battery production output. And the Korea-based electronic giant is counting on its Michigan battery plant to keep up with the auto market.
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