For Michigan’s legendary auto industry to reestablish its preeminent position on the world’s industrial stage, it must lead in the development of new technologies, such as connected and automated vehicles, advanced light- weight-material vehicles and advanced powertrain and propulsion systems, says Nigel Francis, the Senior Automo- tive Adviser to the State of Michigan and Senior Vice President of the Automotive Industry Office of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC).
“As technology becomes the lifeblood driving the industry’s future, Michigan can become its global ‘brain,’” Francis says. “We can and will style vehicles for the global market and lead the evolution where technology and industrial design will be the key elements of
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It is the traditional R&D hub for the auto industry, and the state receives 70 percent of all U.S. auto-related R&D spending. The auto industry supports more than 500,000 direct jobs in the state—15 percent of Michigan’s workforce is employed in direct automotive jobs—and it contributes $2.8 billion in direct taxes to the state treasury. Nationally, 22 percent of all direct auto jobs are based in Michigan, and the industry supported nearly one-quarter of U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012.
“These are advantages that we can and must leverage,” Francis explains. “In Michigan we also have a largely untold secret: The state has more vehicle design talent than anywhere else on the planet. And this legacy of innova- tion can drive our intellectual leadership of tomorrow’s technologies.”
A significant key to making the state’s ambition a reality is ensuring that industry and academia engage as partners to develop the right pipeline of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curricula to prepare the workforce of the