The ongoing expansion of a new engineering and technology company based in Auburn Hills is not only making vehicles more fuel efficient but also bringing a number of job opportunities to the Metro Detroit area.
The ALTe LLC management team’s vision is to advance sustainable mobility. The company is composed of a group of automobile engineers who have experience in leading OEMs and suppliers worldwide. According to its web site, “ALTe’s executives are dedicated to building a large, highly profitable company which makes range extended electric vehicle powertrains whose widespread adoption will significantly reduce oil consumption and carbon emissions globally.”
Brian Polowniak, the senior vice president of sales and marketing at ALTe, said the company’s entire market is currently based on fleet vehicles such as taxis, limos and delivery trucks that “are going to be converted from either out-of-warranty or soon-to-be out-of-warranty vehicles.” This will be done with the use of the company’s range extended electric powertrain system. “We completely remove the engine and the powertrain combustion and drop in a complete electric powertrain,” he said.
Polowniak said the system will permit the converted vehicle to run on electricity as well as significantly improving the vehicle’s mileage. “It allows the vehicle to operate the first 50 to 60 miles on 100 percent electric charge, converted with a generation pack to combustion-driven, and can improve mileage 60 to 200 percent on the vehicle,” he said.
In addition, ALTe, which was started in December 2008, has plans to bring more than 300 full-time jobs to Michigan. These jobs, Polowniak said, will be a combination of engineering, production, program management and sales jobs. He said roughly 1,000 part-time jobs will be created as well.
In February 2010, ALTe received a $8.4 million tax credit from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Michigan Economic Growth Authority board, which was used to develop its 185,000-square foot world headquarters on Purks Road in Auburn Hills.
According to Polowniak, the company has plans to start production in the near future, once the company’s pending loan is approved. “When we receive approval from the Department of Energy, we will build out our production facility, and we will start production in October of 2011,” he said.
For more information on ALTe, visit www.altellc.com.
Source: GreeningDetroit.com
Author: Jennifer Griffin