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* Mike Flannery Day continues. Gov. Pritzker was asked by Flannery about whether he was worried about the future of Ford’s Chicago assembly plant because the company is not building electric vehicles there…
Pritzker: I think any plant that is producing internal combustion engine vehicles right now, we should be worried about. Because the truth is that they’re all going to be converted to electric vehicle plants or close, right? It’s one of those two things. The challenge I think at Torrence is that it’s a small footprint relative to what most of the companies, and I’ve talked to most of them, most of them are looking for, and Ford included, which is they need a lot of territory. Why? Because they need to have a partnership with a battery manufacturer. Those are not US manufacturers. They’re foreign manufacturers that they bring to the US, creates a lot of jobs if you can bring a battery factory, but it’s right next to the assembly plant of these assemblers.
Flannery: It’s just a matter of pulling the land together.
Pritzker: You’ve got to. The reason they have to be next to each other, they mostly are next to each other, is the batteries are very heavy and they’re costly to ship. So you want them to be next door. You see that in most of the country where an assembly company, whether it’s Ford or GM or Stellantis, they’ve got assembly and then they’ve got a partnership next door making batteries, and basically they’ve got an assembly line where those batteries are just moving next door.
Flannery: And your people are talking to Ford?
Pritzker: We are and we want to keep that Torrence plant going. We want to make sure that to the extent that they will of course continue to make ICE vehicles, internal combustion engine vehicles, we want them to make them at that Torrence facility, but we also want them to come to Illinois to build an EV factory.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
Excuse or decent analysis?
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 1:52 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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The oil burning internal combustion machine is choking Mother Earth.
Comment by Dotnonymous XL Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:00 pm
I appreciate that Pritzker is at least thinking of things like this, and not simply just complaining after things close that Illinois is “not business friendly.”
Comment by DuPage Dad Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:02 pm
Ford has retooled factories for electric vehicles.
Ford is investing an additional $100 million in its Kansas City Assembly Plant and adding approximately 150 full-time jobs to begin producing the all-new E-Transit on the heels of the all-electric F-150 announced in September; E-Transit arrives late 2021, F-150 electric 2022
Ford is investing approximately $150 million in Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., to make e-motors and e-transaxles for new electric vehicles, including the all-electric F-150. This will retain 225 jobs
Ford is increasing production plans for the fully electric F-150 at the historic Rouge Plant in Dearborn, adding 200 permanent jobs in addition to a previously announced 300 jobs and part of a $700 million investment in building the all-new F-150 and all-electric F-150
Kansas City and Dearborn plants, together with Oakville, Ontario and Cuautitlan, Mexico, assembly plants, will support the first phase of Ford’s growing North American electric vehicle plans
https://safe.menlosecurity.com/https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2020/11/09/ford-kansas-city-all-electric-ford-e-transit.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoTAECgN_EU
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:17 pm
Not surprised at all that the founder of the 1871 tech incubator is forward-thinking on this.
Comment by levivotedforjudy Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:24 pm
” I think any plant that is producing internal combustion engine vehicles right now, we should be worried about.”
GM and Toyota are both investing hundreds of Millions into developing new IC engines - just not in Illinois…
“Here’s the breakdown between the four plants: GM will invest $579 million in the Flint Engine Operations in Flint, Michigan, where the sixth-gen small block V-8 family of engines will be assembled. GM will invest $216 million in Bay City GPS in Bay City, Michigan (camshafts, connecting rods), $47 million in Defiance Operations in Defiance, Ohio (block castings), and $12 million in Rochester Operations in Rochester, New York (intake manifolds, fuel rails).”
“Toyota Alabama: Huntsville, Ala., $222 million…Kentucky: Georgetown, Ky., $16 million…Missouri: Troy, Mo., $109 million…Jackson, Tenn., $36 million”
Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:30 pm
JB is on point here. The logistics and infrastructure hurdle is step one. You can’t just bribe with edge credits and get anywhere, if the underlying site fundamentals aren’t right. This isn’t a union thing; all the Ford plants are union, and they are doing electric at some of them.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:34 pm
There’s plenty of land in the 10th ward, it’s just contaminated with heavy industry pollutants.
There is a need for workers in the EV industry.
Internal combustion auto workers need to be retrained, not thrown under the bus.
Comment by Loop Lady Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:44 pm
===And your people are talking to Ford?
Pritzker: We are===
That’s Job 1.
Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 3:05 pm
I agree with Loop Lady. Has Pritzker been to the area near the Ford factory? Lots of empty land around there. Whether the owners will sell to Ford, who knows?
Comment by Betty Draper’s cigarette Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 3:52 pm
“I agree with Loop Lady. Has Pritzker been to the area near the Ford factory? Lots of empty land around there. Whether the owners will sell to Ford, who knows? ”
Good point, but is that land usable?
Comment by Mama Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 5:28 pm
Is JB Pritzke still planning to build a big cargo transportation port for river barges in Cario, IL?
Comment by Mana Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 5:32 pm