By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw

WARSAW — Attracting a new start-up car manufacturer with the financial backing of Jeff Bezos — one of the richest men in the world — would be a grand slam story for almost any small community in the country.

But add to that the separate announcement of Michigan-based Autocam Medical’s decision to expand with a new orthopedic facility in Warsaw, and you have a memorable year in economic development likely unmatched in local history.

Combined, Slate Auto and Autocam Medical's plans easily represent the biggest story of the year in Kosciusko County.

Peggy Friday, the executive director for Kosciusko County Economic Development Corp., said she thinks efforts in industrial growth merit an A+ grade.

[caption id="attachment_124829" align="alignright" width="400"] Slate Auto CEO Chris Barman speaks during an open house in late August at its facility on Old Road 30 in Warsaw. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

"Landing Slate, making a case for Autocam and finding a location for them — that doesn’t just happen overnight or by chance," Friday said. "It’s very intentional."

KEDCO worked closely with Kosciusko County officials on an incentive plan to lock in Slate's consideration.

Friday was hired in May of 2024 to replace KEDCO's previous leader, Alan Tio.

"For the first year of KEDCO that I’ve been here. I think it’s been phenomenal. We have a lot to be proud of," Friday said.

[caption id="attachment_124742" align="alignright" width="400"] Construction of Union Station Lofts on McKinley Street is progressing. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

Slate is investing around $400 million over two decades to transform the former national printing plant and plans to employ upward of 1,900 people.

Autocam Medical, which became enamored with the local workforce after using part of Medtronic’s facility over the past year or so, announced plans to construct a new plant in the Warsaw Technology Park that will employ 300 people with a promise of good wages.

Slate's arrival also checks the proverbial box in terms of working to diversify the economic base beyond orthopedics — a goal held by many local leaders who worry about relying too much on a single industry, even though medtech's future trajectory for sustained growth continues to look bright.

[caption id="attachment_124735" align="alignright" width="400"] Lake City Bank's $12 million renovation of a building west of its headquarters will result in an Innovation and Technology Center ready for occupancy in 2026. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

Slate’s reconfiguration of the 1.4 million square foot property on Old Road 30, which began last summer, is also a huge victory in terms of reinvigorating a massive industrial property that went silent just over two years ago and could have easily fallen into decay.

The plant is expected to start making the electric pickup trucks in late 2026.

Those two instances of industrial growth also coincide with significant development in or near downtown Warsaw, much of which is expected to come to fruition in 2026.

Those include the construction of the Millworks apartment complex planned for the old Owen's grocery store west of downtown.

Another apartment complex, this one on the site of the old Gakte property, Union Station Lofts, is currently under construction on McKinley Street just north of Winona Avenue.

Another huge investment involves Lake City Bank's $12 million renovation of a 35,600-square-foot building west of its headquarters along Center Street for an Innovation and Technology Center.

At the same time, the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission lined up a company to significantly redevelop the old Marsh grocery store on South Buffalo Street for a future large antique mall and other proposed retail uses.

The city acquired the land for $1.25 million in hopes of somehow reinvigorating the commercial property and is now expected to eventually recover nearly all of its investment.

Renovations to the old Marsh building are expected to continue into much of 2026.

The city also pulled off a victory in convincing the owners of Hobby Lobby to build a new store in the Marketplace of Warsaw, which has been on the rebound in the past two years after officials worried it could eventually become entirely vacant.

Fans of Hobby Lobby had been hoping to see the company have a presence in Warsaw for years, and the future store should open late next year after several storefronts on the east end of the shopping center are razed to make room for new construction.

In terms of economic development, Friday said there's more to come in 2026.

"We’re going to have a lot to celebrate in ‘26," Friday said. "There are so many projects that are in the hopper for right now, and we look forward to the momentum that we’ve gained.” 

She also points out that the recent 'County of the Year' from the Indiana Chamber of Commerce underscores what’s happening.

“That was just a rubber stamp that we must be doing something right,” she said.

[caption id="attachment_124737" align="aligncenter" width="781"] The early stages of construction for the Millworks apartments west of downtown began this fall. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

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WARSAW — Slate Auto has confirmed plans to convert the old RR Donnelley and Sons facility on Old Road 30 into a factory for electric vehicles.

The company reached out to local media on Tuesday in a news release after News Now Warsaw and the Times-Union highlighted reports on Monday that the company was looking at the old printing plant in Warsaw.

The update comes one week after the electric vehicle company unveiled an innovative business model that seeks to offer significantly less expensive electric vehicles compared to what's currently available n the US auto market.

In an email, Slate stipulated three facts:

• Slate’s factory in Warsaw is part of Slate's commitment to reindustrialization. The brownfield site is a former catalog factory that shuttered in 2023.
• Slate plans to bring over 2,000 jobs to Warsaw. Slate will more than return the number of jobs lost when the factory was closed.
• The first Slate vehicles are expected to be produced in Warsaw in 2026.

Slate is a new American company established in 2022 that is focused on delivering radically affordable, personalizable and reliable electric vehicles.

Slate is an innovative truck platform so customizable that it can transform from a 2-seat pickup to a 5-seat SUV. Slate was founded on a disruptive business model of simplifying the manufacturing process and reindustrializing America.

RR Donnelley was a major employer for decades in Warsaw, but sold the local plant about nine years ago to LSC Communications, which then closed operations about two years ago.

Look for more details and public reaction to the announcement on Wednesday at newsnowwarsaw.com.

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SILVER LAKE — Town council on Wednesday afternoon chose not to participate in a program that would have provided electric vehicles free of charge.

The government program, run through the Michiana Council of Governments, is targeted toward smaller communities and offers free vehicles and chargers — a rarity in the grant world.

Eleven communities in Michiana have been looking into the program, including four in Kosciusko County.

Winona Lake Town Council has already opted to participate. Other local communities expressing interest are Pierceton and North Webster.

Silver Lake’s utility department expressed interest in the program for its utility and police departments, in part, because the program was presented without any costs.

But town council members expressed skepticism about the program.

They questioned the reliability of electric vehicles in frigid weather, long term sustainability and possible maintenance issues.

The program required participating towns pay the initial costs upfront and then wait to be reimbursed.

Some town council members worried the reimbursement program would include a lag in repayment.

Another pointed out reports that many electric vehicles struggled during the recent cold snap in Chicago.

Council Member Hugh Murphin said he'd rather take a wait-and-see approach and consider something similar in the future depending on how Winona Lake's participation works out.

Council Members Jean Carroll questioned the vehicles' reliability while Nicole Taylor said she had little faith in electric vehicles.

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WARSAW — If you Google Bargersville Police Chief Todd Bertram’s name with the word Tesla, you will find thousands of links, mostly because he’s done hundreds of interviews — many with police departments.

That's because Bargersville was the first police department in the U.S. to add a Tesla Model 3 to their fleet of patrol cars.

Bertram said the town south of Indianapolis is growing quickly and saw its population nearly double to 11,000 in just five years.

With a need for more police vehicles, he said town council challenged him to somehow find some significant savings to expand the fleet.

Today — four years later  — his fleet of 18 vehicles includes 13 Teslas.

And he still feels good about the transition.

The one type of police work it might not accomodate might be state police highway patrols because of the large amount of miles they rack up, he said.

[caption id="attachment_87924" align="alignright" width="280"] A view of a charging station at the Bargersville Police Station. Photo provided.[/caption]

“I would say 90 percent of the agencies across this country, it would work with and it would save them money,” Bertram said.

Winona Lake is one of the departments to reach out to Bargersville and is one of three towns in Kosciusko County that are considering applying for grant money through Michiana Area Council of Governments to purchase electric vehicles.

The others are Silver Lake and Pierceton.

Each of the three towns are looking to buy two vehicles.As much as $200,000 is available for each town and the grant covers all expenses.

Bertram said they initially faced resistance to the idea of buying EVs and that cost was one of the big concerns.

Bertram said they faced resistance at first because there was a perception that each car would cost $80,000.

He said they've begun transitioning from a Model 3 which is a sedan and cost about  $37,000, to a model Y which is more like an SUV and costs about $47,000.

He said he’s received hundreds of calls including many from Ohio and Connecticut police departments and even one from Alaska where the caller questioned the reliability of a Tesla in frigid conditions.

"They do great," Bertram said.

"We're treating these cars just  exactly like we treated the Dodge Chargers and the Durangos. We're not giving them any slack. I told them to do that. It needs to run like a normal car, don't baby it," he said.

One misperception is that the public views Teslas as a luxury car in part because of the faux leather, which he said holds up better when transporting drunks and people who some timetimes lose control of their bodily functions.

Dodge Chargers came with cloth interiors which had to be covered in plastic to protect the interior. Teslas, he said, clean up more easily.

“Yeah, we’re chasing bad guys with them. We’re transporting dirty butts in them. We’re doing everything with them," Bertram said.

Another general concern among many is the battery life.

The new Teslas' battery life is rated at 310 miles. In Bargersville, officers work 12-shifts and typically travel about 150 miles per day, Bertram said.

He said patrolmen are expected to keep battery life above 50 percent just to be safe.

The three towns in Kosciusko County announced their interest in the grant program for EVs in recent weeks.

Winona Lake is looking to buy two for the police department and are considering Teslas after speaking with Bertram.

Pierceton is considering EVs for its police department and another for a town pickup truck.

Silver Lake is seeking one for the police department and another for the utility department.

While there is still clearly hesitation among some about the use of EVs — especially for law enforcement — there is also a willingness to give it a try since it would cost town virtually nothing.

"We’re very interested. We were looking to replace a police vehicle and a town truck before we found out about this (grant) so we thought, free is free and we might as well give it a try,” said Pierceton Clerk-Treasurer Myra Mast.

Mast said town council members last year supported the notion, but she's unsure of the current situation because two of the three council members just took office this month.

Silver Lake Town Marshal Jason McGlennon said the town supports looking into it.

“I can’t say that I’m 100 percent sold on EVs but if we can get them for free to try them out, I can’t see that that’s a bad thing,” McGlennon said.

Leah Thill, director of sustainability for MACOG, said they've already focused on jump-starting the interest in EVs with larger communities and that this round of grant money is intended for small communities.

MACOG has invited officials to test drive the EVS Monday.

She said trying out the vehicles through the grant program is the best way to find out if it's a good fit for the town.

"It’s a great opportunity to pilot a new technology at very low financial risk to the community. If it doesn’t work out well, they don’t have to purchase more, they don’t have to go all in,” Thill said.

"If it can work in Silver Lake and Pierceton, it can work anywhere,” she said.

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INDIANAPOLIS — A new statewide dashboard sheds light on what types of cars Hoosiers are driving — and the increasing popularity of electric and hybrid vehicles.

The Indiana Vehicle Fuel Dashboard released last week visualizes information about the types of vehicle fuels in the state, as well as data trends over time.

The new interactive tool allows users to filter by county, fuel type, and type of vehicle. State officials said the dashboard is designed to shed light on alternative fueling trends in transportation throughout the state.

“The fuels Hoosiers are choosing for their transportation needs are diversifying,” said Ryan Hadley, executive director for the Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED), in a statement. “The Indiana Vehicle Fuel Dashboard puts the data directly in the hands of citizens and businesses to see how vehicle adoption trends has and will continue to change.”

Data in the dashboard range from January 2018 to present and comes from Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicle (BMV) registration data and is refreshed weekly.

The first-of-its-kind dashboard was developed through a multi-agency partnership between the OED, BMV, and Indiana Management Performance Hub (MPH), with additional help from the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC).

“The BMV has heard from a number of Hoosiers that they want to see this type of data and we are glad to work with key partners to provide the information,” said Indiana BMV commissioner Joe Hoage. “The dashboard creates an insightful view of vehicles registered in Indiana. The efficiency it provides will serve many looking to utilize this data both in and outside of Indiana.”

More Hoosiers opting for electric, hybrid vehicles

By far, Indiana roads are dominated by gas vehicles, according to state data.

Of the roughly 6.5 million vehicles registered through the BMV last year, 80% were solely gas-powered, and close to 10% were “flexible,” or flex-fuel vehicles that can run on either traditional gasoline or E85 — a gasoline blend with ethanol concentration up to 85%.

About 4% of registered vehicles were categorized as diesel fuel types.

Electric-gas hybrid vehicles accounted for 1.68% of all registered in Indiana, and just .25% were fully electric. That’s equal to nearly 125,000 hybrid and fully electric vehicles, combined.

But although a minority of registered vehicles, alternative fuel types have been gaining popularity in the Hoosier state since 2018.

Electric and gas hybrids accounted for 1.1% of all registered vehicles in 2018, equal to 72,576 vehicles. That same year, there were 3,441 fully electric vehicles, making up .05% of all those registered.

The 2022 numbers reflect a 64% increase in the number of alternative fuel vehicles registered in Indiana since 2018. The new state dashboard indicates that even more electric and hybrid vehicles are being registered in 2023.

Marion County has recorded the most electric and hybrid vehicles registered over the last five years, totaling close to 91,000.

Nearly 60,000 such such vehicles were registered in Hamilton County, while 34,500 were registered in Allen County, and 31,500 in Lake County. St. Joseph, Monroe, Tippecanoe Hendricks, Porter, Elkhart, Johnson, Vanderburgh and Boone counties all had more than 10,000 electric and hybrid vehicles registered, too.

Indiana’s ongoing electric vehicle transition

Multiple, yearslong initiatives in Indiana seek to increase the number of electric and hybrid vehicles on Hoosier roads and reduce overall carbon emissions.

INDOT’s in-progress carbon reduction strategy includes strategies to increase fuel efficiency and electric vehicles, in addition to investing in public transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

A key part of the draft plan — which is boosted by federal dollars and must be finalized by November — is its investment in electric vehicle charging stations. The state plans to build charging stations along all interstates and U.S. Highway 31, with construction expected to begin in 2024.

During the 2023 legislative session, state lawmakers further commissioned a new task force that will analyze buying trends and impacts of increased electric vehicle adoption. The task force will also likely consider new strategies for taxing alternative fuels.

Vehicles that use alternative fuels pay less — or none at all — in gas taxes, which fund transportation infrastructure improvements. Instead, owners pay higher registration fees, but the price is based on assumptions of how many miles those vehicles will drive and how efficiently they’ll do it.

Some lawmakers and state officials say that model is cause for concern, maintaining that — as the number of electric and hybrid vehicles increases — more needs to be done to ensure that roadways can be properly funded and maintained.

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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