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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 27 december 2019
Rust Belt region banks on becoming hub for electric vehicles

By JOHN SEEWER South Korea, China, Detroit,
Associated Press and California, he said. A
The day Youngstown's steel big question is whether a
mills began shutting down place like Ohio that has
40 years ago remains fresh had a big role in produc-
in the minds of those who ing traditional engines and
live in the blue-collar corner transmissions can stake
of Ohio. Community lead- a claim to a new way of
ers don't want the recent making vehicles.
closing of General Motors' Both GM and Ford Motor
massive assembly plant to Co. announced this year
leave that same lingering they are investing heavily in
gloom. their Detroit-area factories,
The region is embarking where they plan to build
on an ambitious plan to the next generation of
become a research and electric and autonomous
production hub for electric vehicles. Volkswagen is
vehicles and carve out a making Tennessee its North
new economy for itself by American base for electric
mixing its industrial past with In this Dec. 5, 2018 file photo, hundreds of Chevrolet Cruze cars sit in a parking lot at General Mo- vehicle production by ex-
emerging technology. tors' assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. panding its plant in Chat-
There are positive signs al- Associated Press tanooga.
ready. GM in early Decem- Where the manufacturing
ber announced it will form mation within the auto in- Economic development been counting on "the next is centered will be deter-
a joint venture and hire dustry is just beginning to leaders point out that the big idea" with investors mined by a number of fac-
more than 1,100 people take shape, it's clear that Youngstown area already promising to build factories tors, Smith said, including lo-
at a new plant that it says fewer workers and facto- is home to a electric bat- that would make blimps, gistics, labor contracts, po-
will be among the largest ries will be needed to make tery testing lab and busi- commuter airplanes and a litical influences, workforce
electric vehicle battery cell cars that require fewer ness incubators that are fo- new version of the Stude- training and how quickly
factories in the world. And parts. Where those next cused on energy and addi- baker. The closing of the car buyers embrace elec-
the Lordstown assembly clusters of electric vehicle tive manufacturing through GM plant that had been tric vehicles. Fully electric
plant that GM shut down manufacturing will sprout is 3-D printing. Youngstown churning out cars for 50 vehicles currently make up
in March has been sold to yet to be determined. State University is breaking years marked the loss of only 1.5% of U.S. new ve-
a newly formed company U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Dem- ground on an advanced the biggest manufacturing hicle sales, and LMC Auto-
that intends to begin mak- ocrat who represents the manufacturing technology anchor remaining in what motive forecasts that will
ing electric trucks by late Youngstown area, thinks center and wants to play a once was Ohio's industrial rise to only 7.5% by the end
2020. being involved with the part in training students to core. of the next decade.
But the Youngstown re- development of electric work in the electric vehicle It will take more than a "We're still in the early days
gion, which for decades vehicles early on is the best industry. battery cell plant for the of this," Smith said.
has been a symbol of the chance his hometown has "We want to take charge Youngstown region to be- Uncertainty also surrounds
American Midwest's declin- had in decades to restore of our future. An opportu- come a hub for electric what will happen with the
ing industrial might, faces what has been lost. nity like this really plays to vehicles, said Brett Smith, former GM assembly plant.
plenty of competition from "For a long time in our com- our regional strengths," said director of research at the It was bought by Lord-
places like Detroit, Silicon munity, we were chas- Mike Hripko, the university's Center for Automotive Re- stown Motors Corp., a new
Valley and China — all of ing smokestacks, chasing associate vice president for search, an industry think company that wants to be-
which also are positioning things that were on the de- economic development tank in Ann Arbor, Michi- gin making electric trucks
to be centers for electric cline," he said. "We're start- and government relations. gan. by late 2020 but also needs
and autonomous vehicles. ing to move in a good di- For decades now, those in Technology and research more investors before man-
While the electric transfor- rection." the Mahoning Valley have will be centered largely in ufacturing can begin.q

France fines Google $166 million for abusing ad dominance

PARIS (AP) — France's Ads and its procedures for that it would appeal, and
competition authority fined freezing accounts, to avoid that its advertising policies
Google 150 million euros "brutal and unjustified" sus- are designed to protect
($166 million) on Friday for pensions. consumers "from exploit-
"abusing its dominant posi- It's the latest in a string of ative and abusive ads."
tion" in the online ad mar- European fines against The case originated from
ket. Google, which faces very a complaint that online
The agency said the U.S. little competition for search consulting company Gib-
tech company mistreated engine business across the media filed after Google
buyers of ads based on continent. The company suspended its ad account
keywords. Methods used has been hit in recent years in 2015. During and after
by its Google Ads platform with multibillion-dollar fines their protracted dispute,
are "opaque and difficult imposed by European Google published similar
to understand" and the Union authorities for unre- ads to those run by Gibme-
company applies them in lated antitrust cases and dia, according to the rul-
In this Monday, Nov. 18, 2019 file photo, the logo of Google is an "unequal and arbitrary is also facing increasing ing, which also cites other
displayed on a carpet at the entrance hall of Google France in way," it said. regulator pressure on other examples of companies
Paris. It also ordered Google to fronts in Europe and the U.S. Google suspended without
Associated Press
clarify the rules for Google Google said in a statement justification.q