Endera produces electric buses at its facility in Ottawa.
Photo courtesy of Endera
LIMA — The Lima region has a long history of producing cars and other vehicles.
Newer manufacturers, such as Endera Motors in Ottawa, are joining with longtime institutions such as the Join Systems Manufacturing Center (also known as the Lima tank plant), Superior Coach and the Lima Ford Engine Plant.
The Ford Lima Engine Plant has quietly become a powerhouse for Ford.
“A lot of people don’t realize that we are the largest engine plant for Ford Motor Company,” said Shawn Stewart, general manager of the Ford Lima Engine Plant. “This building has had up to four engines at a time inside of it. We currently have two, and we also make some parts for our sister plants too. So it’s not as clean cut as it used to be.”
But the plant, which has been around since 1957, just recently celebrated a milestone achievement: the 45 millionth engine produced on the floor.
Compared to other plants, such as one Stewart worked in north of Detroit, that is a testament to its longevity and productivity.
“For the most part, there are a lot of multi-generational families here,” Stewart said. “It’s not uncommon to be second- or third-generation workers here. And there are a lot of transfers in the area in the last 10 years as Ford consolidated other plants.”
That is only one reason why Stewart thinks that the plant is set up well to deliver another 45 million engines in the future.
“We’re at a focal point, and Lima is running good and strong. We have a solid cycle plan for the foreseeable future,” he said. “There is lots of talk about electric happening, and we call our business ‘ICE’ for Internal Combustion Engine, but we’re growing. We can’t share details, but everything looks positive. They will be building engines long after I’m dead and gone. And I plan on hanging around for a while.”
Endera Motors, in Ottawa, is in the electric engine business.
The company, which started in southern California, came to the region in the spring of 2021 when it purchased the companies Titan Bus and Metro Worldwide and merged them together to begin manufacturing electric Type A school buses, shuttles and other transit vehicles.
“I think there were a lot of naysayers at first,” said Curren Clune, vice president of Endera. “People told us it would be difficult for us and that a lot of people in the area were not fond of clean energy. But that has not been the case at all. I think we’ve seen a pretty interesting demand of folks applying and just expressing their curiosity about what we are doing.”
Moving to the area might have seemed puzzling at first for anyone paying attention to the company, which is run by Californians such as Clune. To him, it could not have made more sense to start manufacturing car parts and vehicles in a region with such a strong tradition for that work as northwest Ohio.
“The locale being right in the middle of the automotive Silicon Valley, where 90 percent of vehicles were made at one time, whether it’s Detroit or Toledo or Columbus or anywhere, it seemed like the right move to take the business to the next level and to become fully vertically integrated, which is really Endera’s biggest differentiator,” Clune said. “Endera is the only vertically integrated school bus and shuttle bus electrified platform. If you look at any other vehicle out there in our small market, basically everyone else is electrifying the chassis and shipping it to Indiana to get the body put on. We have the product built end-to-end under one roof.”
The Lima tank plant has been around since World War II, when it produced more than 100,000 combat vehicles. Going strong through a change in name to the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, multiple changes in ownership and changes in product lines, the plant is now owned by the U.S. Army and operated by General Dynamics.
For the Ford plant, even though only engines are manufactured at the plant, Stewart said it might be more important to the company as a whole than any other plant, even though it might not be located in Dearborn, Michigan.
“I don’t think people recognize a lot of the engineering that happens here,” he said. “Engineering folks have also been promoted out of here and gone into higher roles as directors. Our previous director was an Ohio Northern graduate.”
The connections to local education do not end there. The plant’s training building is now sponsored by The Ohio State University’s Lima campus.
Stewart also said the plant is interested in working with Ohio Northern University and area high schools.
“As a country, we’ve kind of walked a lot of our kids into college programs and ignored a lot of the trades,” he said. “And it’s not just us who are hurting as far as trades go. I think if we can reach out more and work more in that area they can get a good future here and the beauty of a program like what we’re doing with Ohio State is that it lends itself very well to somebody who’s either on our assembly line or a tradesperson who decides it’s good work that takes care of their family, but that it’s time to do something different.”
Such a thing is important to keep the 1,550 person-strong workforce at the plant sustained.
For Endera, that part of the transition to Ottawa has been refreshing to see.
“People are curious about what we’re doing and wanting to be a part of it,” Clune said. “They understand the future of electric and want to put their hands on it. They’re capable of actually helping us reach that goal because people in this area are hardworking and gritty, and they like to push the goal forward.”
That kind of attitude is what Endera used to bring minds from such companies as Tesla, Hyundai and Lexus on board for the potential to make an impact.
If they are going to make an impact on the world, they will be doing it with a fairly new automotive technology.
“There is a long way to go, but someone has to take the first step and go into the next category from the internal combustion engine, and so we’re basically at that entry-level position right now,” Clune said. “The next generation wants to use technology and computers to make their lives easier and better in terms of how clean and sustainable it is and how impactful it is for generations to come.”
For the Ford plant, the same thing that has been important since day one remains to be building internal combustion engines.
Starting with a 7.5-liter V8 engine, the plant has made a name producing engines for models such as the Mustang, the Thunderbird and Ranger trucks.
Today, the two engines in production at the plant are a Nano V6 and a Duractec V6, which both go into the Ford F-150.
“I get a lot of pride out of the impact we make on the world,” Stewart said. “My wife is always teasing me when we come down to a restaurant how everybody knows my name.”
Endera, likewise, is happy to be in the region.
“We’re looking forward to expanding and growing as a part of the community,” Clune said. “That’s one of my top goals right after the production numbers we have to hit. We have an open door and it might be new to certain people, but it’s here to stay and we’re ecstatic to be in Northwest Ohio because there’s such an awesome group of people here that value good opportunity when they see it.
CELEBRATING OUR SPIRIT
Plenty of foods, items and ideas are created right here in the Lima region. Celebrating Our Spirit looks at those organizations that make the area such a vibrant place to live, work and play.
Read more stories at LimaOhio.com/tag/spirit.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
