Green Island Former Ford Factory to Build Electric Vehicles

John Gillie, a native of Cohoes, is hoping to bring 200 plus jobs back to his hometown. He wants to make electric vehicles in a new factory on Grand Island.

What is the Goal of the New Factory?

Gillie's new company called Green Island EV will make micro-transit shuttles to be used for public transportation. These electric vehicles will make New York City and other cities that want to go green, a chance to buy from New York state instead of having to import the vehicles from Europe, China, or California.

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Where is the Factory Going to Be?

Gillie plans to build the one hundred fifty thousand square foot facility on fifteen acres of the fifty available near Tibbits Avenue and Cannon Street on Green Island. This used to be the home of the Ford factory according to the Albany Business Review.

What Electric Vehicles Will be Built?

Gillie says he wants to focus on public transportation. It is more efficient and besides just using it for municipalities, the electric shuttles could be used by universities or larger companies to transport employees. He said cities want to be more green.

There's a huge market for micro-transit. The last thing [cities] want to do is build more parking lots. It's redundant. It's so inefficient: Build a parking lot that is ugly to put a car that nobody uses.

Photo by Mario Sessions on Unsplash

Green Island is Unique to Keep Costs Down

Green Island owns its own utility. Manufacturing costs would be much lower because of this. There still would have to be a study done by the village to determine if there is enough room.

What's the Plan?

The Liuzzi Cos would build a $40 million factory and then lease the space to Green Island EV. $10 million dollars would be used to build the campus and $30 million will go towards building the factory. If everything goes through, they hope to start building around May or June of this year.

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Source: Putting Green into Green Island Former Ford Factory to Build Electric Vehicles