Vehicle Production Group is set to shift its headquarters from Fort Lauderdale to Allen Park. The purchasing and engineering staff of the firm, which manufactures a vehicle known as the MV-1 that is accessible by wheelchair, already work out of Allen Park. They will now be joined by the executive staff when they move to 333 Republic Drive, which is situated just to the east side of the training center of the Detroit Lions.
“All of our suppliers are here,” says John Walsh, who took over as the specialty vehicle company’s chief executive officer last April. “All of our technical people are here. Michigan is just the right place for us to be.”
The MV-1 entered into production during last fall thanks to a contract with AM General, which is located in Mishawaka in Indiana. The MV-1 is the very first vehicle to be compliant with the guidelines laid out in the Americans with Disabilities Act. The price for the MV-1 ranges from just $39,000 up to just over $50,000 for a version that is able to run on compressed natural gas. A loan of $50 million was given to assist with the development of the latter version of the MV-1 by the US Department of Energy.
In spite of its relocation to Allen Park, the company will keep open a marketing office in Fort Lauderdale. Since the production of the MV-1 began about 12 months ago, 2,500 vehicles have been built and 1,700 have been sold by Vehicle Production Group, Walsh claims.
Jon Huser
