Low-speed electric vehicle production is getting a boost locally and creating more jobs.
Vernon's own Simolo Customs Ltd. is Canada's only manufacturer of street-legal golf carts.
And it is growing - expanding its production facility and buying new equipment that will lead to the creation of 20 jobs at the company.
The $1.5 million expansion is supported by upwards of $175,000 from the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF).
"This partnership helps us create local jobs by completing the expansion of our current facility and the building of an additional production facility in Vernon," said Jeffery Holomis, CEO of Simolo Customs. "We'll also be purchasing new manufacturing equipment that will allow us to produce more products to ship locally and abroad, further solidifying Simolo Customs Ltd. as a premier Canadian manufacturer."
The expansion will bring the total square footage of the manufacturing facility on Greenhow Road to 31,000 square feet.
The BCMJF supports high-value industrial and manufacturing capital projects in all sectors that will create and protect well-paying jobs.
The BCMJF has committed as much as $103 million toward almost 100 projects, representing almost $870 million in total capital investment in B.C.
Every $1 million invested results in $7 million in total direct capital investments in B.C., $590,000 in tax revenue to the province and $5.3 milion in provincial gross domestic product.
Funded projects will create more than 1,400 jobs and protect more than 1,900 more.
The other five manufacturers receiving funds from the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund include: Penticton - Waycon Manufacturing Ltd., Kamloops - International Steel Fabrication Inc., Revelstoke - Selkirk Specialties, Kelowna - Heartwood Manufacturing Ltd. and Surrey - CureWood Engineered Building Products Ltd.
Through the BCMJF, the contribution of as much as $7 million has also provided an incentive for Mercer Mass Timber (MMT), a subsidiary of Mercer International, to invest in the future of their Okanagan Falls facilities, which MMT acquired one year ago.
