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North Carolina Builds Auto Testing Grounds

Burgeoning Auto Testing Industry Comes to Rural NC

The people of Northhampton County, North Carolina have put their minds and money together to build a state-of-the-art automobile testing facility to lure auto makers into testing their newest cars, trucks, and vans in their rural setting.  The center, with a projected cost of $130 million, is really a cinderella story, with a book/movie deal in the works.

Local and state officials are building the $130 million center mostly on spec, with only two companies publicly committed to the project. But they’re confident the center, where automobile and parts manufacturers and motorsports teams will be able to test experimental and alternative-fuel vehicles, could generate 300 jobs directly and thousands of others within the automobile and other industries.

And in the process, they hope the center will keep a generation of Northampton kids living at home instead of leaving for the big city.

"I’d love to come back," said 17-year-old Tim Gubitz, a Northampton East senior who wants to get an electrical engineering degree at North Carolina State University and enter the electric vehicle industry. "It’s an area that’s growing and I’d love to be a part of that growth."

Gubitz is now a student at Northampton East High School, where since 1993 members of the Automotive Team have hollowed out old cars with gasoline engines and replaced them with several 12-volt batteries and an electric motor.

"I think the forces are coming together, that our country is finally starting to see that we’ve got to change our transportation methods," said Harold Miller, a retired Northampton East teacher who jump-started that first car project. "A gas engine is just a dirty thing."

In a part of the state where students often rank near the bottom in test scores, the kids from Northampton East stunned everyone when they won a multistate electric vehicle competition on their first try. It’s a story that recently became the subject of a book and a potential movie deal.

Automakers are having a difficult year this year. Gas prices and environmental concerns are causing a consumer outcry for hybrid vehicles. And, falling sales are forcing the industry to cut thousands of jobs to keep the books balanced. 

The NC training center may be much less expensive for automakers to utilize than having their own similar center, and the rural location will keep prying eyes out. 

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Posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2005 at 9:34 am In Auto Warranty  


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