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Partnership of major automakers to bring global HQ, 203 high-paying jobs to Durham

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6 months ago

June 13, 2024

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Partnership of major automakers to bring global HQ, 203 high-paying jobs to Durham

DURHAM, N.C. — A group of major automakers focused on electric vehicle charging stations has chosen Durham for its new global headquarters — a $10.1 million investment that is expected to create 203 high-paying jobs over several years, state economic development officials said Tuesday.

North Carolina Department of Commerce officials approved an incentives package worth about $4.1 million for the project planned by Ionna LLC, a partnership between automakers BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis. The incentives included a $3.1 million jobs grant to be paid out if the company hits hiring targets.

It’s the latest in a series of clean energy companies to announce expansions in or relocations to the state. The project announced Tuesday is expected to grow the state’s economy by about $725 million over the next 12 years, commerce officials said during a meeting of the department’s Economic Investment Committee.

Ionna was created to help accelerate the transition to electric vehicles in North America by making charging more convenient, accessible and reliable. The goal is to help remove one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption: a lack of reliable places to charge the vehicles. If more charging stations are available, the industry’s thinking goes, more people might consider buying an EV.

Ionna intends to develop a new high-power charging network with at least 30,000 chargers, helping drivers reduce what the industry calls “range anxiety” — the fear an electric vehicle might run out of juice before getting to the next charging station. The charging stations would be accessible to all battery-powered electric vehicles from any automaker, the company says.

“Zero-emission vehicles will be a critical part of that’s where the private sector is headed,” Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday at an event in Durham. “This company is formed by private sector companies that know where we’re going. North Carolina is going to be on the front end of that.”

Tesla’s pullback

In Durham, Ionna plans to house corporate functions and a customer experience lab to research and develop software and hardware to create the charging station network, state officials said. The new positions would pay an annual average salary of $128,457 — 41.6% above the average annual private-sector wage in the county, according to Commerce Department data. The company plans to create the jobs between 2025 and 2029.

The company chose North Carolina over a site in Austin, Texas, commerce officials said. Durham County also approved about $170,000 in incentives, officials said, adding that Ionna chose North Carolina due in part to its strong labor market and labor costs, business-friendly policies and quality of life.

Ionna’s push comes as one of its biggest competitors, Tesla, is halting its efforts to expand its network of charging stations. Tesla has been seen as a leader in that department, creating the biggest — and what some in the industry consider the most reliable and fastest — network of charging stations.

In late April, Tesla laid off the team that was in charge of growing that network — a move that surprised industry observers. The pullback could make sense, EV industry analysts say, as competitors take up the effort and reduce the burden on Tesla.

Ionna could have benefited from those layoffs. Many of those positions were in Austin, meaning the city had an unusual talent edge as Ionna was considering sites, according to North Carolina commerce officials. But the company chose Durham, which itself is a growing node for EV charger technology.

Kempower Inc., a maker of EV charging stations, this month celebrated the opening of a $41 million Durham manufacturing facility, which is expected to create 300 jobs.

Seth Cutler, Ionna’s chief executive, said Durham’s background in research, innovation and technology was particularly attractive. “The talent’s here,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I think it provides the right foundation for Ionna to be successful and to really enable the company and the team to speed up operations … to solve EV infrastructure in this country.”

Clean energy cluster

Electric vehicles have been a particular focus of state economic developers, who have focused on luring clean-energy businesses to North Carolina. The cluster has exploded in the state in recent years, due in large part to a major investment by Toyota.

In October, Toyota announced it would more than double the size of a massive electric vehicle battery factory in Randolph County. The company’s $14 billion factory, which is between Greensboro and Pittsboro, is expected to eventually employ more than 5,000 people — an investment that has spurred residual growth of contractors and services in the area.

For instance, Fujihatsu & Toyotsu Battery Components, a partnership between Fujihatsu Tech America and Toyota Tsusho America, said in February it would create 133 new jobs in a new electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Liberty. FTBC is investing $60 million in the project, which will support Toyota’s battery manufacturing unit.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast is building a 780,000-square-foot plant in Moncure, where it plans to create thousands of jobs. In 2022, state officials approved $1.2 billion in incentives for the project, which was estimated to grow the state’s economy by at least $71.59 billion over 32 years. The company has since scaled back its initial plans.

“These companies know that a robust infrastructure for charging is the future of EVs,” Cooper said Tuesday. “North Carolina knows that, too. And we’re glad they’re here to work with us. It’s through innovation and collaboration, that we’re becoming the number one state for renewable energy in the country.”

Since 2017, the state has announced at least 19,000 jobs focused on energy efficiency or producing products that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state officials said. Those jobs have been tied to projects that have brought more than $22.6 billion in capital investment to the state.

In April, Boviet Solar, which makes solar panels and photovoltaic cells for residential and commercial customers, said it plans to build its first North American plant in Greenville. The project is expected to create 908 jobs in the Pitt County city as part of a $294 million expansion.

Last month, state officials said that Green New Energy Materials Inc. picked Lincoln County to establish its first manufacturing operation in the United States. The company plans to hire 545 people and invest $140 million in the Lincoln community of Denver.

Meanwhile, an unidentified international maker of solar components is considering a site in Cumberland County for a facility that would create 815 jobs as part of a $159 million investment south of Fayetteville.

WRAL News Reporter Shaun Gallagher contributed to this report.