There is a question about where the new electric vehicle companies will build their cars and trucks if they ever do so. Rivian, headquartered in Plymouth, has an option on the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois and Wheelhorse, now Lordstown Motors, has access to the former GM plant near Youngstown. Tesla is building a new assembly plant in rural Texas where electricity is expensive and uncertain. Maharindi apparently had or has an option to take over former GM plants in Flint. They have been assembling the Roxor in Auburn Hills. I do not know where Bollinger – from Auburn Hills – intends to build its trucks. So far as I know, Nicola does not yet have a plant. Interestingly, Nicola has financial ties to GM. Apparently, Lordstown Motors could not raise capital to buy the GM plant in Ohio so GM sold it to them for a major share of the firm. Fisker Karma, actually assembled cars a decade ago and is apparently back to planning the delivery of cars but where will they build them? Lucid is also taking deposits on cars and has apparently started building an assembly plant in rural Arizona. Oshkosh Defense, headquartered in Warren, won a $482 million contact to build as many as 165,000 electric trucks for the post office but Wheelhorse is suing about that. Presumably, they might be built in the Oshkosh factory in Wisconsin. Milwaukee is encouraging Oshkosh to build a factory in that city. 16,500 trucks a year is less than one-half month’s production at River Rouge.

The idea of using idle plants in Detroit to assemble cars and trucks is not as far-fetched as it seems. Ford is showing what can be done with the Michigan Central depot. Fisher Body #21 on Piquette was purchased by Demitri Hegermann, a Berlin heavy metal entrepreneur., I presume it could be reconverted back to manufacturing. The Packard Plant on the south side of East Grand was put up for sale last year. Apparently, it would be possible to add more floors to that building. What about the Highland Park Ford Plant? The advantage to building vehicles in or near Detroit is access to the human capital of the engineers and talent in this area and to the parts suppliers who can design and produce innovative parts rapidly.

Importantly, the leading prize in architecture, the Pritzker Prize, was awarded this year to Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. This is very significant. They won their prize, in large part, for demonstrating that it was architecturally and financially possible to take large old unused buildings – primarily in France and Belgium – and convert them for new uses while making them impressive architecturally significant
structures. This includes taking abandoned hospitals and converting them into appealing residential and commercial space. Do they set a standard for what imaginative architects could do with the empty but structurally sound buildings of Detroit? Many buildings have been repurposed in Detroit including the Leland School, the Book Cadillac Hotel, the David Whitney building, the Stott Tower, the Michigan Central station, the Freep Press Building, the Edson-Moore building and many more. Does anyone have a list? Can you imagine what Lacaton and Vassal could do with Herman Kiefer hospital, Southwest Hospital, or the Graham-Paige plant on West Warren?