The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $32.6 million grant to help set up production of the Jeep Gladiator plug-in electric hybrid vehicle in Toledo, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D, Toledo) announced.
The money, part of the agency’s Electric-Vehicle Conversion Grants program, was awarded to American Autoparts and Mobis North America. It is earmarked for the construction of a Mobis North America battery plant and the conversion of the company’s existing chassis assembly plant at the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex.
This is “an investment in the green economy and the working people who will keep the automotive heart of our Nation beating strongly in Northwest Ohio,” said Ms. Kaptur, a ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
The award is part of President Biden’s $1.7 billion Investing in America effort to support the conversion of 11 shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities across eight states — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia — to manufacture electric vehicles and their supply chain.
The grant is to help American Autoparts convert its existing internal-combustion-engine complete chassis assembly plant at the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex into a plant to assemble plug-in-hybrid-electric/internal-combustion-engine complete chassis.
That would retain 345 United Auto Workers jobs and create an estimated 38 union jobs supporting the manufacture of a new light PHEV truck.
The funds will also be used for construction of a battery system assembly plant at the new 285,000-square-foot Mobis North America facility at the Toledo Trade Centre Industrial Park, the former site of the North Towne Square Mall.
That, in turn, would create 185 jobs to produce battery packs for PHEV SUVs, PHEV light trucks and PHEV minivans.
City officials were thrilled with the news.
“We couldn’t be more ecstatic,” Brandon Sehlhorst, director of economic development, said. “The city has been working very hard over the past few years to reposition that site into a future economic development engine for the city.”
Those efforts included attracting a national real estate developer, Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development, to build out the site as an industrial park.
“It is no longer sufficient to have a site that is just ready for development. Having a speculative building is the best thing a community can do to attract a business,” Mr. Sehlhorst said.
“The first one is what attracted Mobis,” Mr. Sehlhorst said. “This is all going according to plan. It couldn't be working out any better.”
The federal money is a “win, win, win,” according to Mr. Sehlhorst. “This announcement gives everyone a lot more confidence to put up buildings 2 and 3 on a speculative basis.”
“The Jeep Wrangler 4XE is the No. 1 selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in the U.S., and has been since 2021. We know there is strong demand for an electric Wrangler, and a future electric Gladiator,” Mr. Sehlhorst said. “Helping Jeep’s biggest supplier, Mobis, is making Jeep more competitive and able to sell more products long term.”
The total project cost is $65,235,758, with American Autoparts and Mobis North America matching DOE’s $32,617,879 investment.
The news follows the December announcement by Mobis North America of plans to employ 185 people and invest $13.8 million in a new North Toledo facility that will make base plates and assemble battery systems for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
“Late last year, we saw Mobis invest $13.8 million toward construction of a new battery plant that will create 185 new jobs in North Toledo — now we know this was just a down payment on the future of our city, our region, and our people,” Ms. Kaptur said.
“I am proud today to join Secretary [Jennifer] Granholm and the Department of Energy in announcing an additional investment of more than $65 million, half of which will be Federal, to advance construction of the new battery plant and to convert Mobis’ existing chassis assembly plant at the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex into a facility that will support the manufacture of the Jeep Gladiator Plug-In Electric Hybrid Vehicle,” she said.
“... Today, we further the creation of hundreds of good-paying jobs while safeguarding hundreds more, including those of 354 members of the United Auto Workers."
The Farmington Hills, Mich.-based firm, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Hyundai Mobis, plans to start production at the 5901 Skyview Dr. facility by August. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 1.486 percent, eight-year Job Creation Tax Credit worth potentially more than $1.1 million for the project at its Monday-morning meeting. The agency said Ohio was competing with Michigan to land the project.
The plant is expected to make base plates that house batteries for EVs and hybrids, install the battery into that casing, and ship the units for just-in-time assembly in Jeeps and possibly other Stellantis vehicles. Among the auto plants it’s expected to supply is the nearby Toledo Assembly Complex, which builds the Wrangler and Gladiator.
Mobis said it will lease 150,000 square feet of a newly built 285,000-square-foot industrial building located where the former North Towne Square mall was located. The interior of the building still must be built out with offices and manufacturing equipment.
The company already has a presence locally as a supplier at the Toledo Jeep plant, where about 400 workers produce the chassis for Gladiator pickups before the vehicles are further built up by Jeep employees. It also has two facilities in the Detroit area. The new plant will bring its total North American work force to about 1,000 employees, the company said in December.
First Published July 11, 2024, 11:35 a.m.
