Tag: incentives

Joby Aviation selects Dayton, Ohio for first scaled manufacturing facility

September 19, 2023 / WIL BALDWIN

Santa Cruz, California and Dayton, Ohio, September 18, 2023 — Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: JOBY), a company developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commercial passenger service, today announced it plans to locate its first scaled aircraft production facility in Dayton, Ohio, the birthplace of aviation.

The Wright Brothers, who invented and flew the first powered aircraft, lived and worked in Dayton and opened the first airplane factory in the United States there in 1910. The city is also home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories which has played a key role in supporting Joby’s development.

Joby plans to build a facility capable of delivering up to 500 aircraft per year at the Dayton International Airport, supporting up to 2,000 jobs. The 140-acre site it has selected has the potential to support significant further growth over time, providing enough land to build up to two million square feet of manufacturing space. Construction of the scaled Ohio facility is expected to start in 2024 and it is expected to come online in 2025. Joby plans to use existing nearby buildings to begin near-term operations.

The State of Ohio, JobsOhio and local political subdivisions have offered incentives and benefits of up to $325 million to support the development of the facility, while Joby plans to invest up to $500 million as it scales operations at the site. Joby is also announcing today that it has been invited by the U.S. Department of Energy to submit a Part II Application for financing under the Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program, which provides access to low-interest loans for clean energy projects and would support the scaling of the facility.

Joby’s long-term investor, Toyota, who worked with Joby on the design and successful launch of the company’s Pilot Production Line in Marina, California, plans to continue to advise Joby as it prepares for scaled production of its commercial passenger air taxi in Ohio.

Click the link below to watch the Joby aircraft rollout!

Tesla to set up electric car manufacturing unit in southern India

February 13, 2021 / WIL BALDWIN

From Reuters News by By Bhargav Acharya and Aakriti Bhalla…

BENGALURU, India, February 14 (Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) will set up an electric-car manufacturing unit in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, according to a government document seen by Reuters on Saturday.

“The U.S. firm Tesla will be opening an electric car manufacturing unit in Karnataka,” the state government said in a brief statement.

The statement was part of a broader document outlining the highlights of India’s budget to its people in the local language of Kannada.

Click on the link below to read the full story!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-tesla-set-electric-car-190327441.html

Tesla Negotiating for Possible Texas Vehicle Assembly Plant

June 15, 2020 / WIL BALDWIN

(Reuters) – Electric carmaker Tesla Inc is negotiating possible incentives with a Texas county that could bring a new auto assembly plant to the area near Austin, the state capital, the Austin American-Statesman reported on Monday.

Travis County Commissioners Court is scheduled to discuss terms of the deal on Tuesday, the paper reported, citing people with knowledge of the situation. A vote is expected in the coming weeks.

The paper said it was unclear whether negotiations with Travis County show that Tesla has picked the Austin region as the site for the plant, which would build the company’s electric pickup truck and Model Y SUV and employ thousands of people, or if the company is also negotiating with officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Tesla officials could not immediately be reached to comment. The company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has tweeted previously about the possibility of bringing a plant to Texas. Oklahoma also has been mentioned as a possible site.

Travis County officials declined to comment, and a spokesman for the Texas governor’s office did not immediately comment.

Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had spoken with Musk about a potential plant.

Abbott’s comments came three days after Musk had threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters and future operations to Texas or Nevada after officials in California’s Alameda County, where Tesla’s only U.S. vehicle assembly plant is located, said the plant could not yet reopen because of coronavirus lockdown measures. The plant has since reopened.

Officials with the United Auto Workers union, which represents hourly workers at General Motors Co’s assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, said they believe a Tuesday county meeting will include talks about the possible deal. The union, which has unsuccessfully tried organizing Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant, called on Texas officials to obtain assurances from Tesla about any potential jobs.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit and Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)

Tesla Cuts Prices up to 6% in North America to Boost Demand

May 27, 2020 / WIL BALDWIN

A Tesla logo on a Model S is photographed inside of a Tesla dealership in New York

Tesla Inc <TSLA> has cut prices of its electric vehicles by as much as 6% in North America following a decline in auto demand in the region during weeks of lockdown that have now started to ease.

Tesla also said its Supercharger quick-charging service will no longer be free to new customers of its Model S sedans and Model X sport utility vehicles (SUV’s).

Auto retail sales in the United States likely halved in April from a year earlier, showed data from J.D. Power. However, sales in May are likely to improve due to pent-up demand and incentives offered by most carmakers, the analytics firm said.

Automakers including General Motors Co <GM>, Ford Motor Co <F> and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV <FCAU>, are offering 0% financing rates and deferred payment options for new purchases.

Factories in the United States started to reopen earlier this month with suppliers gearing up to support an auto industry employing nearly 1 million people.

Tesla was briefly forced to stop work at its Fremont, California, factory due to stay-at-home orders. It resumed production after resolving a dispute over safety measures with local authorities.

On Wednesday, Tesla website’s showed the starting price for its Model S sedan is now $74,990, down from $79,990.

Its Model X SUVs are now priced at $79,990, from $84,990, and the lowest-priced Model 3 sedan is $2,000 cheaper at $37,990.

Tesla said it will also cut prices in China – as per usual after price adjustments in the United States – by around 4% for the Model X and Model S.

Tesla China, which is delivering Model 3 sedans from its Shanghai factory, in a Weibo post said it has also cut prices for the Model S and Model X cars it imports, but will keep prices of locally made Model 3 cars unchanged.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher Cushing)

Volvo to Temporarily Close Plants in U.S. and Sweden

March 20, 2020 / WIL BALDWIN

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Swedish carmaker Volvo is suspending production at its factories in Sweden, the United States and Belgium, to curb the spread of the coronavirus, it said on Friday, even as it resumes manufacturing in China where the infection rate has slowed.

Volvo’s Swedish factories in Torslanda, Skovde, Olofstrom, and its U.S. plant in South Carolina will close between March 26 and April 14, the company said. Its plant in Ghent, Belgium has already been temporarily shut down.

“Our primary concerns are the health of our employees and the future of our business,” Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said. “I think for the economy, we need to do something drastic, rather then trying half-hearted measures that drag on forever.”

“We are seeing the effect from this coronavirus is increasing every day. We see problems in the logistics supply side,” he told Reuters. “We have to help contributing to social distancing.”

Samuelsson said the financial impact of the shutdown would become clearer when the carmaker published first-half earnings. The company will reduce the working hours of white-collar staff during the factory closures and will take advantage of government incentives, Samuelsson said.

The financial impact on Volvo also depended on how different countries reacted to contain the virus.

“There is a big difference between countries. Some have curfews, with restaurants and schools closed. In other countries there are less drastic measures. I just think we need to synchronise that more.”

(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Pravin Char)

JetBlue Founder David Neeleman Selects Salt Lake City as Headquarters for New Airline

December 16, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

America’s newest and perhaps most innovative airline does not yet have a name, or any airplanes. But it now has a headquarters.

David Neeleman’s startup will be based in Salt Lake City, where it plans to spend a capital investment of $3.2 million and create nearly 400 jobs over the next five years, according to local authorities. In return, the state offered tax rebates worth as much as about $1.1 million over five years.

“There’s a super strong technology base, and lower cost of living than California and some of the coastal areas,” Lukas Johnson, the airline’s chief commericial said in an interview. “We want to focus more on the technology aspect of the transportation side, and it makes a lot of sense. The tech sector is booming out here.”