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Flint would be #2, even though it is fairly close to Detroit.
And then for me, Ohio stands out in general, but no where specifically.
South Carolina also stands out, but again I have no idea where the production facilities are located within the two above states.
Ohio would be because of Youngstown and maybe Akron-Canton to a lesser extent. South Carolina is generally concentrated in the Upstate (large BMW plant just off of I-85 between Greenville and Spartanburg) with BMW and Michelin. I believe Charleston also might have some auto industry significance. But I agree Flint is definitely #2.
No major city in the US is remotely comparable in scale to Detroit and its automotive ecosystem.
I know people aren't necessarily thrilled about this comparisons, but Detroit is to Automotive like:
*Houston is to Oil/Gas
*DC is to the federal government
*Las Vegas is to Gambling
That said, it depends on what facets of automotive manufacturing you're looking at to determine what areas have a modest industry presence.
Dallas (Toyota), Nashville (Nissan) and Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz) all are home to HQs for foreign automakers that employ tens of thousands of back office workers. Then of course, Austin has becoming the effective IT hub for companies like GM and Tesla.
In terms of the actual manufacturing:
*Kansas City is home to massive assembly plants for both GM and Ford
*Louisville is home to 2 massive Ford plants
*Dallas is home to GM's largest truck plant
*Chattanooga is home to Volkswagen's US plant
*Greenville-Spartanburg is home to BMV's US plant
*Nashville is home to a large Nissan plant
The other brands, however, have their plants scattered about in small town or rural AL/MS, to take advantage of not only the generous tax incentives they offered and their right-to-work laws, but also their desperate & destitute workforce since there are no other companies/plants there competing with them.
These manufacturing plants can employ anywhere from several hundred to several thousand workers. The vast majority of them are blue collar laborers performing manual tasks, but there's usually a relatively small staff of salaried workers on site to support with the daily operations.
Now, the way the supply chain works in automotive is since they operate on a JIT (Just In Time) model to ensure inventory isn't taking up otherwise valuable space or going to waste, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers (I.E. Magna, Lear, Faurecia, Lear, etc.) contracted to support the OEMs will build smaller scale facilities near these manufacturing plants that will also hire several hundred people so that there's minimal disruption in the delivery of parts.
I should also mention though, most of the foreign OEMs have their engineering & tech centers (where the actual R&D takes place) in Detroit.
Last edited by citidata18; 01-09-2021 at 11:57 PM..
No major city in the US is remotely comparable in scale to Detroit and its automotive ecosystem.
I know people aren't necessarily thrilled about this comparisons, but Detroit is to Automotive like:
*Houston is to Oil/Gas
*DC is to the federal government
*Las Vegas is to Gambling
That said, it depends on what facets of automotive manufacturing you're looking at to determine what areas have a modest industry presence.
Dallas (Toyota), Nashville (Nissan) and Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz) all are home to HQs for foreign automakers that employ tens of thousands of engineers,and other back office support. Then of course, Austin has becoming the effective IT hub for companies like GM and Tesla.
In terms of the actual manufacturing:
*Kansas City is home to massive assembly plants for both GM and Ford
*Louisville is home to 2 massive Ford plants
*Dallas is home to GM's largest truck plant
*Chattanooga is home to Volkswagen's US plant
*Greenville-Spartanburg is home to BMV's US plant
*Nashville is home to a large Nissan plant
The other branda, however, they plants scattered about in small town or rural AL/MS, to take advantage of not only the generous tax incentives they offered and their right-to-work laws, but also their desperate & destitute workforce since there are no other companies/plants there competing with them.
VW's HQ was originally in Detroit (near Chrysler's HQ), but I suspect the european executices likely wanted to be in a city that reminded them more of home, which I can see DC being a better fit.
In fact, Michigan was actually the runner-up for VW's plant. While Michigan's overall incentive package was more generous, VW again made the political move to settine in Tennessee instead.
Indiana has some auto manufacturing going on.
Honda has a factory in Greensburg.
Subaru has a factory in Lafayette.
Toyota has factory in Princeton.
Those are all big plants and employ thousands of people.
There may be others in Indiana, but I can't say for sure because I just don't know.
Many automakers have laboratories and R&D centers in the Bay Area, including Tesla Headquarters. https://i.imgur.com/2yJ7BYE.png
SF is also the birthplace and HQ of ridesharing apps Uber and Lyft.
Last edited by JMT; 01-10-2021 at 06:37 AM..
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