December 7, 2011
- Jerry Hirsch
California is fast becoming a global center for electric-vehicle innovation and jobs.
Businesses in the state collected $467 million in electric vehicle venture capital investment during the first half of this year, or 69% of the global total, according to a study by Next 10, a nonprofit founded by Silicon Valley venture capitalist F. Noel Perry.
California also is now tied with Michigan, the traditional center of the U.S. auto industry, in the number of patents filed for electric vehicle technology. Both states generated 300 patents for electric vehicle technology from 2008 to 2010.
Globally, California trails only Japan and South Korea in electric vehicle patents and leads other nations, including Germany, Taiwan and France, Perry said.
Employment also is taking off. Tesla Motors has hired 300 workers in California so far this year, bringing its national workforce to about 1,400. It plans to double its employment next year, with most of the jobs coming to an auto factory in Fremont that it is refurbishing to launch production of its Model S electric sedan in 2012.
“We have a huge hiring plan for next year,” said Arnnon Geshuri, Tesla’s vice president of human resources.
Tesla’s growth is starting to trickle to vendors and contractors. Geshuri said Tesla is busy upgrading and building more office space at the Fremont factory.
“That means we will need more carpet, tables and desks, and that has an economic effect on the trade groups that provide those services,” he said.
Other companies, from small electric drive manufacturers to businesses that install electric vehicle charging stations commercially and in homes also are growing rapidly, with many having doubled their workforces or grown even faster this year.
The growth is important because it is one of the few areas of expansion in a struggling state economy, said, Tracey Grose, a vice president of collaborative economics who prepared Next 10’s report.
To be sure, the venture capital being spent in California represents just a fraction of what the auto industry is putting into electric and hybrid vehicle technology. Nissan, for example, is spending more than $1 billion on just one project: a new factory to build battery packs for its electric Leaf sedan in Smyrna, Tenn.
And the industry is not without its setbacks; last week electric vehicle start-up Aptera Motors shut its doors, putting its staff of 30 out of work after the Carlsbad company ran out of funds.
But “venture capital and patents give us a look into innovation and are a leading indicator of emerging industries,” Grose said.
California’s status as the nation’s biggest auto market -– and electric vehicle market -- and a tech savvy population of early adopters have made the state a friendly environment for companies investing in electric drive technology, said Jordan Ramer, chief executive of EV Connect, a Culver City company that installs public and home charging stations.