Look Out, Midwest Cities: Austin Wants Its Share Of The Auto Businesss
When you think of Austin, Texas, the first things that come to mind are probably food, music, and the South by Southwest festival. Perhaps you know it for its high technology focus. But now, Austin wants you to think of it as an automotive capital.
Austin wants to be thought of as an automotive capital
Isn’t Austin too deep in the heart of Texas? How can it compete with the Great Lakes, let alone other places in the South like Lexington, Ky, Nashville, Tenn., Jackson and Tupelo, Miss., that have already crafted their identities?
Austin’s tactic is to hone in on companies that are developing advanced technology, explains Adrianna Cruz, vice president of global corporate recruitment for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.
It’s using the Formula One race in November, which will be held in Austin, to draw attention to its bid to be included in the nation’s automotive centers. It’s the first F1 race in the U.S. since 2007, when the circuit came to Indianapolis.
“The auto industry is going through a change and a shift. There’s a focus on battery technology and making things cleaner and safer,” Cruz says. “If there’s a location to look at as we discuss how to do things differently – how do we make cars smarter, safer, better for environment – Austin wants to be on the leading edge of those discussions.”
Cruz says a series of companies have already invested in automotive technology projects there, including US Farathane, a leading source of plastics manufacturing for the auto industry. It announced in December that it is opening a 250,000 square foot facility in Austin, creating an additional 228 jobs.
Austin also has operations by Freescale Semiconductor, of Novi, Mich., a leading supplier of semiconductors, whose technology is used in a number of vehicles including hybrids produced at General Motors’ plant in Arlington, Texas; ActaCell, started as a spinoff from the University of Texas, which is developing the next generation of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles; SMSC, a multi-media networking company that supplies European carmakers including Audi, BMW, Land Rover and Volvo; and TASUS, an injection-molding company.
In addition to all that, SXSW will feature a series of speakers on electric vehicles and other automotive topics this year.
Cruz says her office often asks representatives from these companies to meet with firms that are considering investments in Austin. “What we hear over and over again is that companies come with an expectation, and what they find in Austin exceeds their expectation,” Cruz says.
To be sure, Austin has a lot of competition in marketing its automotive leadership. Louisville and Lexington recently teamed up to establish an advanced manufacturing cluster, and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce has launched MICHAuto, an effort to stress the state’s automotive prowess.
But Toyota’s San Antonio assembly plant, 74 miles southwest of Austin, showed the state can be an active player on the automotive scene, said Cruz. She maintains the city is a good way station between Detroit and car companies’ operations in Mexico, as well as Latin America.
It also doesn’t hurt that Austin is already seen as one of the country’s most attractive cities. “Austin has a lot of wonderful things going for it: a great place to live raise a family, the school system is very good, people are comfortable and happy in their work, at night they may go play in a band,” Cruz says.