Start-up lightweight hybrid bus manufacturer, Fisher Coachworks, will invest $7 million in three Michigan-based manufacturing facilities and create more than 500 Michigan-based jobs.
The first 50,000 square foot “pilot” facility will be located in Livonia. Two more facilities are expected to come on-line within the next couple of years.
"The thing that really drove us to stay here was the investors, our advisers and the supply base," says Fisher Coachworks Founder and CEO Gregory Fisher.
Fisher Coachworks manufactures hybrid buses that get 10 miles a gallon. Most hybrid bus systems claim 4.5 miles a gallon, Fisher says. An average city bus gets a measly 3 miles a gallon.
"Initially we want to get these to Detroit, Lansing — the Michigan area," Fisher says. "Then to New York and the entire country."
This mass transit hybrid will have a positive impact on the transit system, but will also create jobs — 539, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).
The MEGA board recently approved an $11.3 million state tax credit for Fisher Coachworks. Fisher Coachworks was also considering a location in Tennessee.
Source: Gregory Fisher, Fisher Coachworks
Writer: Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Lansing's Capital Gains and can be reached here.
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