This post was provided by News Now Warsaw
By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — A national publication is reporting that a new electric vehicle company backed by Jeff Bezos, which unveiled plans last week for a new, innovative truck, hopes to convert the old R.R. Donnelley plant in Warsaw into a manufacturing facility.
TechCrunch, an online publication that’s been following developments with Slate Auto for months, reported on Friday that the company “is close to locking in a former printing plant located in Warsaw, Indiana, as the future production site for its cheap electric truck, a review of public records shows.”
Slate’s announcement pairs up closely with comments by the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation that a major business announcement involving the RR Donnelley property was looming and expected to happen in March or April.
According to TechCrunch:
Slate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Peggy Friday, the CEO of the Kosciusko County Economic Development Corporation, said in an email that she is “under a strict non-disclosure agreement with the project.”
Furthermore, “Slate showed an aerial photo of the factory during Thursday’s event. The company did not say where it was located, but the photo matches a public listing for the facility available on the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s website.”
TechCrunch previously reported that the company planned to make its EVs, which will cost under $20,000 after the federal tax credit, in Indiana.
Friday had she had hoped to issue a statement or update on Monday, but chose to hold off for the meantime.
Both Friday and the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, Rob Parker, have expressed in public a sense of confidence that an unnamed company could potentially bring upward of 2,000 jobs to the city.
If the plan comes together, it would represent the biggest economic development story in Kosciusko County in decades and would go a long way toward fulfilling the desires by many to see the local economy diversify beyond orthopedics.
Slate, in an interview with ABC News, described the truck as a “radically affordable and customizable vehicle.”
The company is expected to rely on “wraps” rather than a traditional paint department for the exterior look of the vehicle to further trim production costs.
Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose, in a presentation to the Warsaw Rotary Club on Friday, was asked for an update in the Donnelly property.
He was equally reserved in his comments, adding, “We gotta be careful. There is activity that’s happening there, and we’re doing everything we can to entertain a massive business.”
Asked if this would have a transformative impact, Grose said that if it comes together, it would take intergovernmental cooperation with the county to accommodate the potential growth.
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Here is a video recapping aspects of the innovative Slate Truck.
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The three-year-old startup revealed its vehicle Thursday night in Long Beach, Calif., and promised the first trucks would be available to customers for under $20,000 with the federal EV tax credit by the end of 2026.
The Warsaw facility was home for decades to R.R. Donnelley and Sons before it was sold to LSC Communications about nine years ago.
LSC closed operations about two years ago.
At its height, Donnelley’s employed close to 2,000 workers, but when LSC closed, it was down to just a few hundred.
A real estate sign near the entrance of the property on Old Road that was posted ten months ago has been removed.
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