Growing demand for, and production of, electric vehicles will bring change to the automotive industry to which Ohio manufacturers must adapt, but it also presents an opportunity for new players in the market, panelists at a Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce program said Thursday morning.
Ohio is the top domestic producer of internal-combustion engines and No. 2 for transmission manufacturing, but those two components and many other systems common in gasoline-powered vehicles simply don’t exist in electric vehicles, members of the Opportunities for Northwest Ohio in Electric Vehicle Technology panel said.
And the changes go beyond parts suppliers. As sales of electrics and other alternatives to conventional autos, trucks, and buses grow – and they’re growing even as the total vehicle market is pinched by a computer-chip shortage – there will be less demand for oil changes and gas stations and more need for batteries and charging stations, panelists said during the 90-minute program at Toledo’s Central Union Terminal.
“You may not need as many people” to build and maintain electric vehicles, “but you’ve got to have the right people,” said Jonathan Bridges, the managing director of automotive for JobsOhio.
By being within a day’s truck haul of 96 percent of current vehicle production in the United States and Canada, Ohio is well positioned to capitalize on the transition to electric and alternative-fuel vehicles if it is able to adapt, Mr. Bridges said.
“We’re not trying to pick winners and losers, but we do want to support the growth in the industry,” he said.
In Toledo, General Motors announced last week its plan to spend $760 million to convert its Alexis Road transmission plant, once known as its Hydra-Matic division, into Toledo Propulsion Systems to manufacture electric drives. It is the first GM plant to be so refitted, although it is initially expected to make them alongside its conventional transmission products.
GM also is involved in a joint venture with South Korean electronics manufacturer LG to make vehicle batteries at three new plants, including one that began production last month in Warren, Ohio, near Youngstown.
Panelist Michael Toole, dean of the University of Toledo’s engineering college, noted that while electric vehicles offer faster acceleration, are quieter, make no direct emissions, and are cheaper for routine operation, they have a higher initial cost, take more time to recharge, and require “specialized maintenance expertise.”
Travel distance per charge is getting longer, but charging stations remain sparse in rural areas and especially in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains states, he noted.
And Andrew Bremer, the managing director of local affairs for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s DriveOhio unit, said ODOT is developing the framework for establishing a basic number of charging stations along primary highway corridors in the state using its $20.7 million allocation from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, part of the recent federal infrastructure law.
Proposals from potential vendors will likely be due in December, and it is ODOT’s intention for buildout to be done along Interstate highway corridors in 2024 and along designated U.S. and state routes the following year, Mr. Bremer said.
Batteries and battery components are another area offering a ripe opportunity for Ohio manufacturers. Mr. Bridges cited the particular example of Ultium Cells, the joint venture of GM and LG Energy Solution, whose 2.8 million square foot Warren plant cost $2.3 billion to build.
China and Europe currently are bigger users than the United States of electric and hybrid vehicles, and Mr. Bridges noted that the top battery manufacturer is Chinese, while the top seven are all either in China or South Korea.
But there is plenty of room for domestic growth in battery manufacturing, “and we’re trying to support that growth being here,” he said after showing a map of several dozen battery-related plants or projects in Ohio.
JobsOhio has been careful about “making deals that don’t pay back” as other states have done, but “you’re going to see some big wins come really soon,” Mr. Bridges said.
Several audience members asked about the potential to limit what vendors add to the cost of the electricity they provide at vehicle charging stations, noting that the rates they pay at home are a small fraction of what charging-station electricity costs.
And Nancy Hirsch, a Toledo Department of Transportation planner, told the panel that one of the electric vehicles’ shortcomings is current charging stations’ unreliability. For a driver to be directed to a recharging location only to discover it doesn’t work is “a terrible look,” she said.
Mr. Bremen said the ODOT program’s elements will include a 97-percent availability standard for charging stations, along with price transparency. It would probably fall to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to determine if “some sort of reasonable amount of profit” should be established for rapid charging stations’ operators, he said.
First Published September 29, 2022, 8:28 p.m.
