SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — An electric sports car company's plant coming to the West Plains area could bring 3,000 jobs to Spokane County.
The West Plains Airport Area Public Development Authority and Mullen Technologies, Inc. of Brea, California, announced that they signed a letter of intent to build the 1.3 million square-feet of office and manufacturing space to develop Qiantu K50, according to a county spokesperson.
The company would bring approximately 55 jobs at startup, with a projected increase to 863 jobs by 2026 in manufacturing the high-performance electric sports car.
The company has also expressed interest in bringing its research and development for lithium batteries to Spokane, which could increase the project job count to nearly 3,000.
Todd Coleman, executive director of the PDA, described the planned positions as "strong wage-earning jobs."
The PDA is working with Mullen to secure a 100,000 square-foot facility that the company can immediately occupy to begin manufacturing the sports car while the new facility is being built.
The permanent facility will be located at the northeast corner of Thorpe and Craig roads, about two miles west of the airport and a mile southwest of Kent, Washington-based Exotic Metals Forming Co., at 12821 W. McFarlane Rd.
The permanent facility will be built in two phases, with the first consisting of 500,000 square-feet that will be able to accommodate the production of the Qiantu K50 and research and development of a new lithium battery, Coleman said.
Phase two will add an additional 800,000 square-feet.
Coleman said the PDA plans to sell revenue bonds to finance the project.
Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart said the development shows that “the strong partnership between city, county and airport gets results.”
“Spokane will only continue to get big wins for the region when we collaborate,” he said.
The U.S. launch of Qiantu K50 Is anticipated in 2020. The pure electric high-performance sports car is capable of zero to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds, 125-mph maximum speed and a range of approximately 250 miles.
The lithium batteries powering the sports car would be 30 percent lighter and would significantly increase the overall range of the vehicle.