Hard-hit county gets a green jolt

The Elkhart Truth staff
updated 1:28 p.m. MT, Thurs., May. 14, 2009
WAKARUSA, Ind.—

A partnership of traditional and green-building manufacturers may deliver a jolt to the economy of one of America's worst-hit counties, bringing as many as 1,600 jobs by 2012 while at the same time potentially putting the electric-vehicle movement into overdrive.

Officials from Gulf Stream Coach, an Elkhart County recreational vehicle company in Wakarusa, a northern Indiana town hard hit by manufacturing job losses, joined state and local economic development officials Thursday to unveil a partnership with Electric Motor Corp. of Camarillo, Calif. The goal is to produce the first mass-produced light-duty electric hybrid pickup truck, they said.

The venture will generate 100 to 200 new jobs by the end of this year, 400 new jobs by the end of 2010 and 1,100 more jobs by the end of 2011, according to officials.

Elkhart County’s unemployment rate was 18.8 percent in March, 13 percentage points higher than a year before. It was the largest gain in the United States, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30746068/