$84M ZAP electric car plant to be built in Kentucky

A new $84 million low-speed electric car plant will be built in Simpson County, Kentucky, and bring 4,000 jobs within four years. The governor’s office announced August 25 that Integrity Automotive and its California-based partner, ZAP, have chosen the county to build a one million square-foot plant.

“We will be making cars 12 months from today,” said Randall Waldman, chief executive of Integrity Automotive. Waldman anticipates an initial workforce of about 1,250, which will be hired about 30 to 60 days before production begins. To start, the plant will produce 300 cars a day.

The plant will also make electric buses as well as ZAP’s entire product line which includes ATV’s, according to Waldman, and the plant will eventually replace ZAP’s China facility. The cars will be sold globally.

Waldman, known for his passion about bringing jobs back from overseas, is also owner and CEO of Integrity Manufacturing in Shepherdsville, Ky. That company was started in February 2007 and since has grown to 400 employees.

Waldman said Integrity Manufacturing will be a Tier I supplier to the new plant and will be opening a support facility at the plant to do all of the stampings as well as the frame construction.

On August 15, the state approved a tax incentive package worth up to $48 million to entice the joint venture to locate in Kentucky. Earlier this month, Governor Steve Beshear signed an executive order permitting the use of low-speed vehicles on Kentucky highways with a posted speed limit of 45 miles-per-hour or less. According to the state, Integrity and ZAP officials said the later action was critical in the decision to choose Kentucky as the site of the new plant.

Reports say average hourly wages at the new plant will be about $20 plus benefits. The facility will to be built on more than 225 acres in the Wilkey Industrial Park on Highway 31-W North.

ZAP, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., launched in 1994.