Carbon Motors is coming to Connersville

CONNERSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) - Carbon Motors has chosen the southeastern Indiana city of Connersville as the site for its proposed auto manufacturing plant.

The news was highly anticipated and created more excitement than the economically depressed community has seen in years.

The automakers Chief Executive Officer William Santana Li made the official announcement during a jobs rally in the city on Wednesday.

“If the White House is listening, Mr. President there is a few thousand people here in Connersville Indiana that just declared the official turn around of the United States of America,” said Li.

Fayette County, where Connersville is located, has an unemployment rate near 16%. The new auto plant will bring some 1500 jobs to the city and perhaps thousands of jobs more in related business.

Wednesday morning, thousands gathered at the American Jobs Rally held at the former Visteon plant in Connersville. It will be the new home of Carbon Motors. But, before the company can open up shop it has to resolve issues over buying the Visteon plant, as well as, environmental concerns in the building.

“You call them glitches. I call them opportunities. It’s time we all walked the talk and started cleaning up the environment. And that starts with buildings like this," said Li.

The federal government required Carbon Motors to name its proposed location before the company could apply for federal funding.

“I really think that’s the big question. Everything that I know and sense tells me they have a winning, superior application. We’re going to support it as strongly as we can," said Governor Mitch Daniels.

Carbon Motors will produce the E-7, state of the art police vehicle ( Click here for frequently asked questions about Carbon Motors).

“It means a lot to the city. We’ve had unemployment go up and up for the last several months and always at the top of the list, and that’s not where we want to be number one right now. We want to be number one for Carbon Motors. And I think they made a good choice in picking Connersville," said Nancy Jurmanovich, a resident of Connersville.

Carbon Motors is a start-up company based in Atlanta. Its leadership used to work for Ford. The company hopes to start production in Connersville in 2012.