Northeast Ohio's long history with the automotive, manufacturing, advanced metals and plastics industries gives the region a strong opportunity to capitalize on the emerging electric vehicle (EV) and electric battery market, according to a report from economic development group Team NEO.
Team NEO's latest quarterly report, released July 17, looked at the projected five-year growth of key industries within the EV market and compared the region's industrial base with other areas of the country. A comparative advantage is important because U.S.-produced electric vehicles are projected to triple in production through 2029, growing to almost 9 million, according to data from Moody's Analytics.
The fastest-growing industries related to EV manufacturing, Team NEO found in its report, are semiconductors and electronic component manufacturing; plastics manufacturing; motor vehicle part manufacturing; and metal alloy production — all strengths for Northeast Ohio.
"We see a lot of projected growth in semiconductors, plastic products, which we, in Ohio, have strong clusters in," said Jacob Duritsky, Team NEO's vice president of strategy and research. "Our region obviously also does a lot in metal alloys and motor vehicle supply chain-related space, all of which can provide strategic contributors to the EV market."
Seventeen of the top 20 EV-related supply chain sectors have a high concentration in Northeast Ohio, Duritsky added. In the case of iron, steel and alloy manufacturing, the region has five to six times higher levels of production than the national average.
With Intel's big operation near Columbus expected to be up and running in 2025, and Northeast Ohio's existing manufacturing and materials sector, Duritsky believes the region will make a strong case for an end-to-end supply chain to support the EV market.
The region also has high potential for buying EVs during the next five years, according to the Team NEO report.
Northeast Ohio is well represented when it comes to the top 10 industries expected to buy into the EV market, including construction light truck and utility, hospitals and landscaping equipment, Duritsky said.
"I think we do see some unique concentrations of areas that are projected to use EV products," he said. "We are projecting to see the electrification of some of the products hospitals use for transportation, and even medical devices within a hospital environment."
The EV market remains small compared with the traditional automotive sector, but Mindy McLaughlin, Team NEO's managing director of global business development, believes there's significant opportunity in being an early entrant.
She said the EV industry is wide open for Northeast Ohio because, unlike traditional automotive supply chains that have been and are based on decades-old relationships, this new market is open to innovation from anywhere.
"There is an opportunity for companies who are startups ... because going forward, the best and the first supplier wins," McLaughlin said.
The proximity to Northeast Ohio's existing automotive supply chain and the region's other manufacturing industries is another advantage in building the EV market here, McLaughlin said.
"It's a wide-open market, and that's why it's a real, emerging opportunity for us," she added.