Dive Brief:
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The Shyft Group announced a $16 million investment to boost its electric delivery van production in Charlotte, Michigan, according to a Feb. 7 press release.
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The investment will allow support production of Shyft’s Blue Arc EV Solutions brand, which launched last year. The company plans to buy new equipment plus expand and upgrade its facilities.
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The expansion will allow Shyft to produce up to 3,000 EVs a year, according to the release. The company has 2,000 customer pre-orders for its Class 3, 4, and 5 all-electric delivery vehicles.
Dive Insight:
The Shyft Group’s Blue Arc brand includes an all-electric Class 3 delivery walk-in van in addition to what the company says is the industry’s first commercial grade EV chassis.
“We created Blue Arc not just for companies looking to evolve their parcel delivery fleets to electric power, but for the people – for our customers and the drivers,” Shyft CEO Daryl Adams said in a statement last year. “Blue Arc is the electric mobility company that can deliver end-to-end holistic EV solutions and meet sustainability and performance goals with a full ecosystem of electric-powered solutions.”
The Charlotte campus currently has seven facilities and contains various Shyft production lines for walk-in delivery vans, motorhome chassis and work truck chassis. The investment will create a range of engineering, manufacturing and technical jobs.
Shyft said production on BlueArc chassis and delivery EV vans will begin mid-2023. The expansion is supported by co-investments and incentives from the city of Charlotte and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, according to the press release.
A spokesperson for The Shyft Group said the company received a Jobs Ready Michigan Program grant in the amount of $800,000.
“The grant will be performance-based and available upon demonstration that employees earn at least $742 per week, which will require the company to retain and train employees,” the spokesperson said in an email to Manufacturing Dive.
The manufacturer received tax abatements on the investment and equipment upgrades at two of its facilities on the Charlotte campus.
