Electric vehicle maker plans plant in Hazelwood
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 27, 2011
By Tim Logan
Boosting hopes for the St. Louis region's beleaguered auto industry, a British company is planning to launch a line of hybrid electric vans that would be made in Hazelwood.
A two-year-old startup called Emerald Automotive tonight will unveil plans for a factory that could employ nearly 600 people here. The company says it will make lightweight delivery vans for European commercial fleets, and eventually for sale in the U.S. and potentially Asia.
To get things rolling, Emerald still needs to nail down state and local incentives to help with development costs and, crucially, line up financing for its plant. But after a year of talking with local officials, the company is taking the wraps off its plan.
"We're ready to make a commitment to Missouri and to Hazelwood," said Sharon Heaton, Emerald's general counsel. "We are absolutely committed to being there."
Emerald has been working on its vehicle - the T100 - for about two years, Heaton said, with a design team made up of veterans of other alternative-car companies such as Lotus, Tesla and Fisker. It will use a battery, recharged by either a diesel or gas engine, and have a range estimated at 475 miles. The vehicle is expected to get about 130 miles per gallon.
The target market is delivery, utility and other companies that buy vehicles in bulk and do a lot of driving. The British Royal Mail has been consulting on design, Heaton said, and has a preliminary deal to be an early customer. Indeed, Emerald expects most of its first buyers will be in Europe. But it chose to build the vehicles in the U.S., in part to tap the skilled labor market and in part because many suppliers are here, she said.
"Also we think over time the U.S. is going to be an extremely strong market for us," she said.
Emerald looked at locations in 25 states, Heaton said. It chose the St. Louis area because of its central location, its pool of experienced auto workers here and "an incredibly business-like" approach by state and local governments, she said.
"They were very much about 'How do we make this happen,'" she said.
It will take some incentives. The Missouri Technology Corp. last week gave preliminary approval to a $2 million loan for the project. And the Hazelwood City Council is considering a measure to match that sum with funds from its economic development sales tax. The project could be eligible for other incentives depending on exactly where it locates - Emerald is narrowing down a few sites in Hazelwood, Heaton said.
Besides local funds, the company has $5 million in private capital and a $5 million technology grant from the British government, Heaton said. It hopes to raise $160 million to build a plant from a mix of private equity and U.S. Department of Energy loans for high-efficiency vehicle manufacturing. Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City received a similar loan last year to build its line of larger trucks.
Emerald hopes to have a plant fully up and running by 2014, and be making 10,000 vehicles a year by 2015. At that rate, Emerald expects to employ about 580 people, and says its suppliers would likely move in nearby as well, creating an additional 400 jobs.
Compared to the heyday of automaking in St. Louis, when Big Three plants pumped out thousands of cars a month, Emerald's operation would be relatively small - a "niche product," Heaton calls it.
But it is most welcome news regardless, said Richard Fleming, president of the Regional Chamber and Growth Association. It is a chance to put some talented auto workers back on the job, he said, and to put St. Louis back on the car-making map, in a new way.
