The Bay Area ports could gain a boost in imported vehicles at the expense of Southern California ports if start-up electric car maker Coda finalizes a deal to contract final assembly work on the vehicles at a car plant in Benicia.
Coda is hoping to import nearly finished electric cars built in China and perform final assembly in a West Coast plant. The Santa Monica-based firm had been looking at setting up a final assembly plant in Los Angeles County, but has now reached a preliminary agreement with Amports Inc., which operates a 645-acre automobile assembly plant about 30 miles from the Port of Oakland in Benicia.
The Benicia deal could take several weeks to finalize, according to Amports officials. Amport already performs final assembly work for Ford, General Motors and Toyota.
Coda hopes to import and finish 14,000 of the $45,000 cars by the end of next year, with initial customer deliveries beginning this December. After state and federal subsidies, the price of the Coda vehicles could fall into the low $30,000s.
In addition to looking at Los Angeles County, the firm also looked at a plant in Oxnard, north of Los Angeles. This plant was determined to have insufficient infrastructure to support the 14,000 cars goal.
Coda has estimated that the assembly work would support up to 100 local jobs.
Showing posts with label automobiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label automobiles. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Honda Breaks Ground on New Richmond Import Facility
The American arm of Japan-based Honda Motor Co. broke ground Tuesday on a new hybrid-car import facility that will make the Port of Richmond, California one of only three West Coast ports of entry for the carmaker's Japan-manufactured vehicles.
The 80-acre facility promises to pump more than $85 million into the local economy over the 15-year deal with the city. The Honda Port of Entry Project and the completed facility will also create about 250 jobs, according to American Honda Motor Co., of which 30 percent must go--under terms of the deal--to people that live in Richmond.
As part of the deal, the city will spend about $37 million to build new rail tracks at the facility location and upgrade existing tracks. Currently, Honda ships autos destined for the Bay Area through the Port of San Diego and trucks the vehicles to Northern California. In addition to Honda hybrids going to customers in the Bay Area, the Richmond facility will, according to the developers, also be utilized to ship the Honda vehicles via rail to the entire southern half of the country.
When completed, Honda expects to ship about 145,000 cars a year through the facility.
The 80-acre facility promises to pump more than $85 million into the local economy over the 15-year deal with the city. The Honda Port of Entry Project and the completed facility will also create about 250 jobs, according to American Honda Motor Co., of which 30 percent must go--under terms of the deal--to people that live in Richmond.
As part of the deal, the city will spend about $37 million to build new rail tracks at the facility location and upgrade existing tracks. Currently, Honda ships autos destined for the Bay Area through the Port of San Diego and trucks the vehicles to Northern California. In addition to Honda hybrids going to customers in the Bay Area, the Richmond facility will, according to the developers, also be utilized to ship the Honda vehicles via rail to the entire southern half of the country.
When completed, Honda expects to ship about 145,000 cars a year through the facility.
