Location Factors in the EV Industry
Date Posted: February 23, 2023
Posted In: Environment/Sustainability, News,
From Area Development: Shifting policies and regulations, increased consumer spending, significant investments by leading automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), continued environmental concerns, high gas costs, decreasing battery prices, and charging system technology advancements are among the many components contributing to electric vehicles (EVs) record-setting sales in the second quarter of 2022. By 2030, automakers are anticipated to invest over $500 billion, globally, in EVs and associated components, forging ahead with plans to predominantly shift to production of EV platforms by the end of the decade — if not sooner — as EV utilization has already seen mass adoption in Europe and Asia and is reaching a tipping point in the U.S.
As a result, there is currently a global race by automotive companies and suppliers to identify adequate greenfield development sites and/or transform existing operations to align with EV production needs. In response, governments, economic development organizations, utilities, and others have been aggressively readying sites and communities, as the full EV value chain pursues market share and searches for critical locations that can successfully support new project investment.
“Mission Critical” Factors
The successful siting of any new facility is a complex process that coalesces around combinations of quantitative and qualitative factors, often with several tradeoffs. When considering the expanded needs of the many EV-related projects seen globally today, the tension between “nice-to-have” and “mission critical” is brought into focus as the quantity of truly investment-ready sites continues to decrease in an increasingly competitive environment. While there are often standard industry needs, understanding unique operational requirements and corporate success factors — and how they interact with each other — at the outset of any new site selection analysis is a vital step that requires input from multiple business segments to identify measurable criteria (critical location factors) and relative importance for informed, and efficient, decisions to be made.