HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — In addition to building the Ranger utility task vehicle, Alabamians working at Polaris’s newly-operational Huntsville facility are also assembling a vehicle that more closely resembles something off the set of a Batman movie than it does the world-class off-road vehicles Polaris is best known for.
The Polaris Slingshot is a reverse trike (two wheels in the front, one in the back) that has two seats and one purpose: “pure driving freedom.” The 2016 model begins at $21,500.
Already a leader in automobile and aerospace manufacturing, Alabama is now home to one of the world’s largest manufacturers of off-road vehicles. Eighteen months ago, Governor Robert Bentley joined state and local leaders in Huntsville to announce Polaris Industries had chosen Alabama to produce off-road vehicles and create up to 2,000 new jobs.
The project is worth about $127 million total. The state offered the company just over $30 million in incentives and also trains workers for the company, which is an additional incentive worth approximately $20 million. Polaris is expected to employ 1,700 workers at an average of $18 per hour.
According to the state’s jobs site, there are multiple positions for which they are currently accepting applications, including welders, robot programmers, painters and more.
Polaris’s new 600,000 square-foot facility is located southwest of Huntsville City Center. The 453-acre Huntsville site offers Polaris close proximity to its key customer base in the Southeast U.S. and strong logistics network. Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, the plant supports several core processes, including vehicle assembly, chassis and body painting, welding, fabrication and injection molding.
“This new facility will complement our already strong and growing North American manufacturing footprint by reducing pressure on our existing facilities and enable each to remain focused on their current product lines as we continue to meet the demand for our innovative, quality products.” said Ken Pucel, Polaris’s Executive Vice President of Operations, Engineering, and Lean. “We are grateful to the city of Huntsville and the state of Alabama for their support as we invest in our shared future.”
During a second-quarter earnings call this week, Polaris Chairman and CEO Scott Wine said the Alabama facility is already blowing and going.
“Our growing lean capabilities are driving factory inventory reductions and increased cash flow, while our customer excellence initiatives are enhancing our capabilities to deliver world-class sales and service to our consumers,” he said in a prepared statement.
Check out a promotional video for the 2016 Polaris Slingshot below.
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