First electric cars leave Elkhart plant

December 15, 2010|By Chad Damp (damp@wsbt.com)

The first of what should be thousands of electric cars rolled out of the new THINK North America plant in Elkhart Wednesday. The company says this is the first step in bringing hundreds of jobs to the struggling region.

Think opened its plant in the former Phillips building on Elkhart's east side in October. On Wednesday, the first 15 fully-electric cars left the facility.

But company officials say this is just the beginning of what they hope will be a permanent stay in the city.

When the recession hit, many people thought the production of vehicles in Elkhart was over. Those people should reconsider that thought. The company, which is based in Oslo, Norway, plans to roll out 300 electric cars from the plant by the end of the year.

"This clearly gave us some hope in a very trying and difficult time, and we're seeing the momentum pick up for this particular company, Think," said Dorinda heiden-Guss with Elkhart County’s Economic Development Corporation.

Currently, the partially-assembled cars are shipped in from Finland to be finished. Workers install various components including the lithium-ion batteries that are made by a company in Indianapolis.

"We're producing about 20 cars a day now," said Karl Turner, Think manufacturing director.

The plant currently employs more than 25 workers, but the company plans to have more than 100 by the end of next year.

"It will start to go up from a very small number and gradually ramp up to the hundred probably around the July period we'll be at full strength," Turner said.

Think expects to expand the Elkhart plant to fully produce the cars by mid 2011. That plan is broken up into four stages. Stages one and two involve installing batteries into the already assembled vehicles. Stage three is the preparation of the facility for stage four, which is full production.

The company plans to have more than 415 workers by 2013.

And when Think was looking for the right workforce to build their cars, they didn't have to give Elkhart a second thought.

"I don't think we could of done it anywhere in the world apart from here, because these guys were spot on," Turner said.

The first 15 cars are being delivered to the state of Indiana Thursday.

Governor Mitch Daniels announced Wednesday he will be accepting the vehicles that will be primarily used by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

The use of the electric cars is part of the state's “Project Plug-In” which is focused on making Indiana a leader in making and using plug-in vehicles.

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