Ford, General Motors Announce Key Moves in Electric Vehicle Push

As part of Ford’s more than $3.2 billion investment in their North American manufacturing facilities to produce a series of electric vehicles for commercial and retail customers, the company announced plans to invest $850 million in its River Rouge Complex in Dearborn and Van Dyke Transmission Plant in
Sterling Heights that will add or retain 725 jobs. Plans include investments in the Van Dyke plant to make e-motors and e-transaxles for new electric vehicles, as well as ramping up production plans at the Rouge Plant in Dearborn. The announcement comes roughly two months after the company broke ground on its historic River Rouge Complex, which will serve as the home of the all-electric F-150 truck series.

General Motors announced its commitment to hire 3,000 new employees largely focused on software development. The announcement comes on the heels of the automaker’s recent launch of the GMC Hummer EV, which is the first vehicle on GM’s next-generation electric vehicle platform with its proprietary Ultium battery cells. Earlier this year, GM made a commitment to invest $20 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025, including offering 20 new electric vehicles globally by 2023.

Both announcements signal the industry’s continued momentum towards electric vehicle adoption and further solidifies Michigan as the ideal place for the manufacturing of next-gen transportation.

Established in February 2020, the Wayne Mobility Initiative (WMI) aims to improve quality of life for individuals and communities through excellence in mobility-related research, teaching, and service. In one of its first initiatives to realize that goal, WMI launched the Mobility for All Competition, a three-phase event that will take place between October 2020 and October 2021. The objective of the competition is for interdisciplinary student and faculty teams to develop innovative, impactful and accessible solutions to real mobility challenges.

Phase 1 of the competition will require teams to propose a solution with one of the following challenge areas: public safety, access to food, access to healthcare, access to education, in addition to four challenges areas related to transportation: public transit, bicycle infrastructure, walkability, and connected and autonomous vehicles. Up to ten finalists will be selected to pitch their ideas to the WMI panel, making them eligible for the second phase of the competition as well. The deadline to apply for phase 1 of the competition is December 11.

PlanetM Landing Zone member, Applied Intuition, recently raised $125 million in Series C funding, achieving a $1.25 billion valuation for its autonomous vehicle testing software. Applied Intuition was founded in 2017 with a mission to make it faster, safer and easier to bring autonomy to the market.

With the additional capital, Applied Intuition will continue to invest in its platform, strengthen its global presence and expand deeper into verticals such as automotive, freight/trucking, delivery robots, defense, mining, agriculture, construction, AMR and aviation. Applied Intuition will maintain its Michigan roots, and we are thrilled to have them as part of our Landing Zone community.

Powering Up Electric Vehicles Key Part of Michigan’s Future Plans

Plug and Play Detroit, Powered by AmplifyD, and in collaboration with partners at FCA, MMSDC, BorgWarner, and Michigan’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, announced the inaugural batch [zero] startups. Congratulations to the participating startups who represent a mix of technology areas, geographic locations and funding stages, including: Acerta, Aichemist, Bluespace, ClearFlame Engines, Chargeway, Cogniac, Deepen AI, GuardKnox, GBatteries, HAAS Alert, Heat Inverse, Interplai, Intvo, Omnitron Sensors, Populus, Potential Motors, Sibros.

For more information, please contact detroit@pnptc.com or visit the Plug and Play Detroit website here.

Global representatives, practitioners and thought leaders converged virtually at the Dubai Expo 2020. Hear directly from Trevor Pawl, the state of Michigan’s Chief Mobility Officer for his remarks as part of the Urban and Rural Development Program Workshop in this clip here.

Hear from industry leaders that participated at the 2020 GENIVI virtual experience conference here.