ElectraMeccanica, a Canadian-based electric car company, has selected Mesa as the company’s U.S. based assembly facility and engineering technical center.
ElectraMeccanica worked with BDO USA’s Site Selection & Incentives Practice to find the for the selection process, which began February 2020. BDO initially identified seven potential candidates and sent requests for proposals from local authorities in each state. By June, after the companies had reviewed the detailed bids and visited each site, they narrowed the list down to five. By August, only three candidates were left.
Arizona and Tennessee were ultimately named the two finalist states. After intense proposal reviews and negotiations, Mesa was ultimately selected as the most well-suited for ElectraMeccanica’s goals.
Not only is Phoenix the fifth largest city in the U.S., according to 2020 census data, but it is also a growing tech hub. Mesa is ranked 35th in a list of the largest cities in the country.
“We believe Mesa’s population size and density provides a great talent pool as we look forward to contributing to the growing high-tech environment,” says ElectraMeccanica CEO Paul Rivera in a press release.
Arizona is also becoming a hub for EV production. Lucid Motors is building a manufacturing facility in Casa Grande while Nikola Motor Company is building its manufacturing headquarters in Buckeye.
The Mesa facility will produce ElectraMeccanica’s flagship, three-wheeled SOLO EV, which the company anticipates will be in high demand, especially as commercial fleet and utility vehicles. The company claims that, when the facility is fully operational, it will be capable of producing up to 20,000 SOLOS per year. There will also be up to 500 new jobs.
Governor Doug Ducey expressed his excitement about the new project, tweeting a big thank you to the company for choosing Mesa.
The company also recognized Ducey and the state of Arizona for helping solidify the deal and conveyed enthusiasm for the area.
“This decision is monumental for our business and will be transformative for our host city and state,” says Rivera.