Jacksonville lands Florida’s first autonomous vehicle plant

Florida’s first autonomous vehicle manufacturer will break ground in about six weeks on a factory that could employ more than 1,000 people on Jacksonville’s Northside.

Germany’s Holon will begin construction of a 491,000-square-foot plant to build autonomous, 15-seat electric people movers. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority will be the fist American customer to use the driveless vehicles when it launches a shuttle service known as the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C.

The plant, announced Wednesday, and JTA’s plans are a plus for everyone, JTA CEO Nat Ford said.

“They see it as a lighthouse project to get into the United States,” Ford said of Holon, chosen to set up the plant here after a four-year search for a site.

“You manufacture the vehicles here in Northeast Florida; you have a signature, world-recognized project with the U2C; you have the universities that are pumping out the technology students they need,” Ford said. “It was the right ecosystem. That’s what was described to me by their CEO when I visited Germany a few years ago.”

The city is providing a $7.5 million grant for the $100 million plant on Zoo Parkway. The plant will be built on 41 acres near the Broward River, with a two-story office building next to its 40-foot tall facility.

Holon officials said the plant will create 150 initial jobs and upwards of 1,000 as production and customer demand increases.

“We expect 5,000 (vehicles) in the first step, in one shift, and the maximum capacity is 12,000 cars per year in two shifts,” said Petr Marijczuk, chief operating officer for Holon. “JTA are the first customers, and the pilot customers. But then they will go around the U.S. and abroad. We already have contracts for Saudi Arabia and Europe, so you will see the export to other countries.”

JTA has been planning the Ultimate Urban Circulator for years.

The first of three phases will consist of 14 autonomous electric vehicles carrying people between the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts area to Everbank Field, Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena and 121 Financial Ballpark. U2C vehicles are fully autonomous, with laser, sonar and radar guidance and detection systems able to navigate around cars and pedestrians and react to stoplights and crosswalks, JTA says.

Construction will begin soon to modify the first 3.2-mile stretch of Bay Street with 12 bus stops for the autonomous vans, plus sensors and cameras to support them as they move among the usual automotive traffic. JTA says the first U2C service will start by June, and the agency is building an Autonomous Innovation Center at Bay and Jefferson streets where the entire $65 million system will be monitored.

The first autonomous vehicles to be used on the Bay Street corridor will be a modified Ford electric van. The Holon Mover is set to replace those in 2027, Ford said.

The JTA and Holon officials unveiled the prototype of the 15-seat people mover at an hourlong event Wednesday at the JTA’s autonomous vehicle testing center on Armsdale Road. They were joined by Mayor Donna Deegan, state and local lawmakers and members of the support companies that will deploy and manage the automated vehicles.

This is Holon’s first production facility outside its global headquarters and engineering center in Paderborn, Germany. Florida was the right place to build it, Marijczuk said.

“We did a vigorous search all over the United States, and this is the best place to produce our cars,” Marijczuk said. “We have committed people here; we have support from the city, state and the JTA. And we have plenty of employees in the U.S. And after our searches, this is the right place to be.”

The plant will give Jacksonville the first automotive manufacturer and autonomous people mover maker in Florida and makes the city “a serious player,” Deegan said.

“Holon is exactly the type of company that we want to attract here in Jacksonville — an innovator and job creator with a global reach and a reputation for delivering,” Deegan said. “We are grateful for your $100 million investment into the Northwest corner of our city, and of course the 200 jobs with competitive pay and substantial benefits that you will bring as well.”

JTA began testing the first version of its autonomous mass transit system a week ago. The autonomous electric Ford vans stop at 14 lunch spots along Riverside Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

The Brooklyn AV Circulator is running from the Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center in LaVilla to eight existing and new JTA stops along Riverside Avenue and has an attendant in the driver’s seat if needed.

“We are hearing that the feedback has really, really been positive,” Ford said of the Brooklyn test service. “This new technology allows them to hop on and hop off. It is part of the socialization process that we believe is necessary for this new technology.”

The second of the U2C’s three phases will start with conversion of the existing 2.5-mile Skyway system in parts of Downtown and San Marco into an elevated roadway for autonomous vehicles. Ramps will allow them to travel from Bay Street overhead all the way to a stop at the Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center at LaVilla. The U2C vehicles also will cross the Acosta Bridge to the Southbank and become a 10-mile system.

The U2C’s third phase will connect to the city’s Brooklyn and Riverside area’s new condominiums, offices and established homes, shops and restaurants on surface streets. Funding is now available for project engineering.

A $12.5 million federal grant for the JTA’s urban circulator includes a mandate that the authority must use autonomous vehicles built in the U.S.

The estimated cost of all three phases could be as much as $400 million for a full build-out. The second, $246 million phase will soon be put out to bid, funded through the extension of the local option gas tax. No construction date has been set, JTA said.

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