This is a “transformational time” for manufacturing in the region, Jennifer Brindisi, director of marketing and communications for BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren, said in an email. BRITE is an energy technology incubator.
“Pointing to Ultium Cells and that 2.8 million square foot battery plant — it’s reinvigorating industrial development. Now, there’s an indeterminate amount of development potential — to attract more mobility jobs and more companies that support those jobs. We have it all here — the base, the workforce and talent, access to world-class universities, and communities that are ready for the future of manufacturing,” Brindisi continued.
The prior automotive experience of the workforce in Northeast Ohio has been a benefit to Lordstown Motors, said president Edward Hightower, who joined the electric vehicle maker at the end of 2021. The propulsion systems of electric and internal combustion engine vehicles are obviously very different, but the exterior components, like the bodies, are similar. It’s been helpful to have employees with experience putting a vehicle together, he said.
“Building vehicles is very complex,” Hightower said.
He’d argue that vehicles are the most complex consumer product on the market, with bodies and chassis and propulsion systems working together. And they’re often drawing on global supply chains, with design happening at every level. It’s a lot to coordinate, even without the widespread supply chain challenges the industry has seen in recent years.
To that end, Lordstown Motors has been working to bring some of its supply chain under its own roof, creating components like wheel hub motors and battery packs in its massive factory.
Supply chains arise when OEMs build vehicles in an area, Hightower said, and Lordstown Motors and its partner — Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics company that plans to buy the physical plant in Lordstown, as well as work with Lordstown Motors on manufacturing — believe in localization. It reduces supply chain risks and lowers logistics and tariff costs, he said, as well as creates local jobs.
