Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
The auto belt – including northeast Indiana – is in a race for the future.
As global efforts ramp up to create economical electric cars and trucks, area manufacturers and colleges are fighting for the lead.
“This is a case that Indiana can win, but we have to play hard,” said James Caruthers, a Purdue University professor of chemical engineering on the West Lafayette campus.
Those hopes got a big boost last month when President Obama traveled to Elkhart County to announce a $2.4 billion grant program to move electric-vehicle technology down the road. Of that, $410 million will go to projects primarily in Indiana – including $39.2 million for Navistar Inc., which has a major engineering operation in Fort Wayne.
The money will help produce 400 electric delivery trucks next year at Navistar plants in Elkhart County.
They’re designed by the British company Modec Ltd., but Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said Fort Wayne engineers will work to modify them for U.S. production. For competitive reasons, he said, Wiley declined to comment on longer-term designs taking place in Fort Wayne.
“Some of our competitors would love to know that,” Wiley said. “We don’t talk about advanced designs until we’re ready to announce them.”
But Caruthers said it’s crucial that Navistar and other Indiana companies forge ahead on electric vehicle designs. Car batteries, lights and other electrical components traditionally have been designed and produced in the state.
“Car electrification all came out of Indiana,” Caruthers said.
But now Korea, Japan, China and other regions of the United States – particularly California – are vying to jump into the lead.
Caruthers is heading collaboration among Purdue, Notre Dame, Ivy Tech, Indiana University-Purdue University campuses in Indianapolis and Calumet and Indiana University Northwest.
With $6.1 million, the Indiana group got the second-most educational money of any state from the Obama electric-vehicle initiative. An educational project jointly undertaken in West Virginia and South Carolina got $6.9 million.
But Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne is getting none of the funding, spokeswoman Susan Alderman said.
Caruthers said it was too cumbersome to involve additional institutions in the initial application.
“But our intent is to broaden it to involve all the higher-education institutions in the state,” Caruthers said.
The participating colleges are working to develop curricula to teach engineers how to design electric cars, production workers how to build them and teachers how to interest their students in them.
And they’ve set another mission for themselves.
“We want to raise the perception that if you want to work with batteries and electric vehicles, Indiana is the place to be,” Caruthers said.
Toward that end, they’re creating an Internet hub – “a Web site on steroids,” Caruthers calls it. It will provide information and forums for anyone interested in electric vehicles including professional designers and elementary school students working on book reports.
In 2010, Purdue also will conduct an electric-vehicle race similar to its Grand Prix go-cart race in which students design, build and race vehicles. Caruthers said he’s already getting lots of inquiries, including from media outlets that want to broadcast the event.
“We’ve had calls from all over,” he said.
If Indiana can win the race to produce affordable, practical electric vehicles, it would be a boon to northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. As many as 24,000 workers in the region make parts for the automakers and 3,700 more work for the car companies.
In 2007, General Motors Co. started work on the all-electric Chevrolet Volt, which is set for production in November 2010. But the government initiative will speed development of different kinds of electric vehicles, spokesman Rob Peterson said.
“There’s a tendency to fixate on the Volt, but it’s just the tipping point to electric vehicles,” Peterson said.
Already, parts makers are retooling for electric vehicles, and new companies are getting into the game. But being close to assembly plants – as many Midwestern parts makers are – is a clear advantage, Peterson said.
But how likely is it that electric cars and trucks will soon be attractive to consumers? There are big technical hurdles.
During Obama’s visit, Navistar CEO Dan Ustian said there still isn’t a cost-effective lithium-ion battery in production. Battery makers EnerDel Inc. and Johnson Controls Inc. declined to discuss the cost of their products out of competitive concerns.
Caruthers said he couldn’t discuss pricing either, but he said reducing the price of lithium batteries is a major goal of the initiative.
The technology isn’t as simple as it sounds.
“Getting a one-ton vehicle moving from a stoplight is a lot different than moving electrons around your laptop and powering up the screen,” said Dave Andrea, vice president of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, which represents parts makers.
Obama’s program awarded EnerDel Inc. in Indianapolis $118 million to produce such a battery, but in announcing the news, EnerDel said the industry was still in its early stages.
Johnson Controls has a battery-distribution center in Fort Wayne, but that’s for lead-acid cells. Johnson was awarded $299 million by the electric-vehicle program to produce lithium batteries, but the only production facility announced so far will be in Holland, Mich.
There’s also the range of all-electric vehicles. Navistar delivery trucks will go only 100 miles. And the vehicles need time to charge: at least two hours, Caruthers said.
“If you’re driving from Lafayette to Fort Wayne, it’s going to be tough,” Caruthers said. “And when you get to Fort Wayne, where are you going to plug in?”
Because of limited range and power, it will be awhile before all-electric trucks will be made at GM’s Allen County assembly plant. But drive-train components could be made at the Defiance, Ohio, foundry, Peterson said.
But steadily increasing gas prices and government policy will create incremental progress, Caruthers said. Electric vehicles will be used first for commuting and deliveries, Caruthers said, and gradually the infrastructure will develop to drive them cross-country.
Andrea said a “tremendous amount” of public investment accompanied development of the internal-combustion engine and something similar will have to aid the growth of its electric successor.
Bills are pending in Congress encouraging the Defense Department to develop electric military vehicles.
Caruthers said Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center – in Martin County southwest of Bloomington – is where half of the Defense Department’s battery development takes place. It’s a handy way for Indiana battery makers to collaborate with the military to develop their products for mass audiences.
Andrea, of the parts makers association, said the parts industry has an important request of the government: The Obama administration has prioritized electric-vehicle development and now the government – regardless who’s running it – needs to stick with it.
“You have to be consistent with these market signals,” Andrea said.
He said parts makers have suffered enough in the recession. The last thing they need is to tool up for a new technology then have the government shift its focus in a few years.
