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A startup company that plans to build high-tech police cars announced Wednesday that it had picked a vacant auto-parts plant in Connersville for its first factory.
A large crowd cheered as Carbon Motors Corp.’s chairman spoke on the factory floor inside the former Visteon plant. It has been a prominent symbol of the struggles in east central Indiana’s Fayette County, which had a 15.9 percent unemployment rate in June.
The company says it could potentially hire 1,550 workers after spending $350 million to refurbish the 1.8 million-square-foot factory that Visteon shut down in 2007.
Carbon Motors has developed a prototype of its Carbon E7 squad car, which it says is the first vehicle specifically designed for police use. It includes bulletproof door and dash panels, radiation and biological threat detectors, an automatic license plate-recognition system and a 3-liter diesel engine the company says can reduce fuel costs by up to 40 percent.
General Electric says it has canceled plans to close a plant in Bloomington, although about a quarter of its 720 employees will be laid off this fall.
Plant Manager Kent Suiters says that a re-evaluation led the company to reverse a decision announced last year to close the Bloomington refrigerator factory. One reason is government incentives the company receives for making energy-efficient appliances at the plant that could be extended until 2013.
But Suiters says 190 jobs will be cut because demand for its refrigerators is down 27 percent this year.
Decatur-based Fleetwood RV Inc. has introduced a new, Class A gas-powered motor home, the 2010 Bounder Classic. It comes in 30-foot, 34-foot and 35-foot lengths. Starting at less than $100,000, it will be the cheapest of Fleetwood’s Class A motor homes.
Fleetwood RV Inc. was formed this month when bankrupt Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. sold its Decatur assets to the private-equity firm American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IV LP. John Draheim, president of the new company, said it would adapt to the struggling economy by adjusting its product mix.
The Bounder Classic was unveiled last week at the Fleetwood Motor Coach Association’s summer rally in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Shares of WellPoint Inc. tumbled Wednesday after the health insurer reported a second-quarter profit drop and enrollment that slid further than analysts expected.
Total medical enrollment fell by 1.1 million people, or 3 percent, to 34.2 million compared with the same quarter last year. The Indianapolis-based company attributed most of that loss to rising unemployment.
WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurer based on enrollment, operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states.
Alcoa Inc. said Wednesday that Alain Belda, executive chairman and former CEO, will retire as an executive effective Aug. 1 but will continue as board chairman until his term expires next year.
The company, which has an Auburn plant, said in a regulatory filing it expects CEO Klaus Kleinfeld to succeed Belda as chairman.
