Detroit Regional Chamber > Chamber > Canadian EV Charging Company Invests $3M In Michigan For First U.S. Facility

Canadian EV Charging Company Invests $3M In Michigan For First U.S. Facility

June 23, 2022

MLive
Lindsay Moore
June 7, 2022

Canadian electric charging company FLO has chosen Michigan to be home to its first U.S. facility.

The company announced a $3 million investment to bring a manufacturing facility to Auburn Hills. The plant will create 133 jobs in Oakland County.

“The future of EVs is in Michigan,” said Louis Tremblay, FLO president and CEO.

FLO, a subsidiary of AddEnergie, offers home charging equipment for both single-family houses and multi-unit residential buildings, as well as access to thousands of public charging stations, according to the company website.

The Quebec-based company plans to produce 250,000 EV chargers by 2028 for the U.S. market. Over time that ramp up will create an estimated 730 direct and indirect jobs, according to FLO.

FLO will receive an $800,000 Michigan Business Development Program (MBDP) grant for the project.

This development comes on the heels of other electrification and mobility-related expansions from EV testing sites to semiconductor workforce pipelines. In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said FLO will continue that transition to electric vehicles.

“FLO’s presence in Oakland County builds on our tradition of automotive manufacturing with an eye toward our electrified future,” Whitmer said. “This announcement is the latest in a series of recent, major investments in Michigan’s economy, and I could not be prouder that the world’s manufacturing leaders know Michigan is the place to be.”

Whitmer and Ford announced a $2 billion investment into three Michigan plants at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

The governor created the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification and the Council on Future Mobility to coordinate all auto and mobility-related initiatives.

Her office has touted electric infrastructure projects like charging stations in state parks, highway charging sites, and an electrified roadway in Southeast Michigan as ways to get more drivers in EVs.

Rising gas prices have led more drivers to consider switching to EVs but the initial cost of an electric car is still higher than most ICE vehicles. There are no entry-level EV models on the market for consumers looking in the $30,000 to $40,000 range, according to an Anderson Economic Group report.

Whitmer’s budget proposal would lower the cost of electric vehicles by providing a $2,000 rebate on top of the $7,500 federal credit and a $500 rebate for at-home charging infrastructure.

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