North Carolina's automotive sector is poised to add jobs as the U.S. auto industry shifts toward higher fuel efficiency as well as hybrids and electric vehicles to meet public demand and federal mandates.
This state already ranks among the nation's top 10 automotive clusters, according to state data, and many of those companies are expanding into electronics, components and materials recycling used in the next-generation cars.
A study issued Tuesday by the United Auto Workers union and environmental groups ranked North Carolina 13th in the nation for jobs in clean and efficient auto technologies. Statewide, 19 facilities employ nearly 5,300 workers in those fields, the study estimated.
The local benefits are impossible to quantify, but those in the industry describe the changes in sweeping terms.
"It will take tens of thousands of jobs just to make the anodes for the U.S. automotive industry," said Albert Bender, CEO of Tec-Cel inCary. "Those jobs will come from somewhere - it could be India or China or wherever - and we are trying to get a piece of that market."
Tec-Cel was spun off from a N.C. State University research project in May 2010 after initial funding of $1.35 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. Tec-Cel is now trying to raise money from investors. Staffed with a handful of volunteer students and a pair of unpaid directors, Tec-Cel is developing a technology that could boost the energy storage capacity of lithium ion batteries tenfold, Bender said.
Companies in advanced auto technology span a wide range, from the development of long-range batteries to the manufacturing of efficient fuel valves and diesel-electric trucks. The technologies will be used in long-range all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles now entering the market, as well as in gasoline-powered models that will have to meet the fuel efficiency standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
The new standard was announced last week by President Barack Obama. On Tuesday, the president announced the first ever fuel-economy rules for tractor-trailer trucks. The big rigs will have to get 20 percent more miles per gallon by 2018.
Eaton, an industrial conglomerate that employs nearly 3,000 statewide, has already announced it plans to create 120 jobs in Roxboro over four years as it ramps up production of components for efficient fuel valves. The company also makes diesel-electric systems in Kings Mountain, about 200 miles west of Raleigh, for delivery trucks used by FedEx, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and internationally.
Battery business zooms
Umicore USA, a Raleigh-based subsidiary of Belgium's Umicore, foresees growth at its Umicore Autocatalyst Recycling business unit that currently employs about 20 people in Maxton, about 80 miles south of Raleigh.
That unit collects used catalytic converters and extracts rare metals for reuse in new converters. The unit will also recycle cathode materials from used electric car batteries that will start entering the recycling market in the coming years, said Umicore USA executive vice president Mark Caffarey.
Because electric cars have about 500 pounds of batteries, compared to a 50-pound battery in a conventional car, the recycling business is poised to take off, Caffarey said.
Likewise, Durham LED lighting maker Cree's Power Business stands to gain from manufacturing silicon carbide products used in electric car recharging stations, which are just now being adopted in public parking decks and lots in this state.
ABB, a Swiss energy conglomerate, employs 1,500 statewide at six sites, including about 600 in Cary and Raleigh.
ABB specializes in transmission systems, power grids and electric substations, but the company is also involved in a research project to recycle used Chevy Volt batteries for secondary uses, such as electricity storage from solar panels.
"The electrification of the transportation sector is going to imply an enormous investment in the power grid, and we're the largest grid supplier in the world," ABB spokesman Bob Fesmire said.
