An Expansion with Horsepower
Berea is getting a $112 million manufacturing expansion built around the increasingly complicated business of making two power sources work together smoothly inside a hybrid vehicle.
Where Two Kinds of Power Meet
Astemo Americas plans to add nearly 300,000 square feet of production and warehouse space at its two Berea plants, creating 114 jobs as the company increases production of hybrid electric-vehicle motors and other powertrain components.
The first phase of the expansion is part of a larger multiyear program that could eventually create 282 jobs at Astemo’s Kentucky operations.
What Berea is making helps explain why the project matters.
A hybrid vehicle has to coordinate a gasoline engine, electric motor, battery and electronic controls while the person behind the wheel simply presses the accelerator. Depending on driving conditions, the vehicle can draw from one power source, combine the two or recover energy during braking. That requires components capable of handling constant changes in speed, load and power without making the transition obvious to the driver.
Astemo’s Berea operations already manufacture chassis and electric-powertrain components. The expansion increases the company’s capacity to produce the systems supporting that increasingly complex handoff.
More Space, More Precision
Adding almost 300,000 square feet means considerably more than finding room for a few extra machines. Automotive powertrain manufacturing depends on tightly controlled production processes, precision equipment and repeated quality checks because the finished components must perform reliably through years of starts, stops and changing driving conditions.
That also puts people behind the technology. The first phase will add 114 positions across Astemo’s two Berea plants, although the company has not yet published a detailed hiring schedule, construction timeline or breakdown of job categories and training requirements.
Kentucky has a long history with the company. Astemo opened its first state facility in Harrodsburg in 1985, and that plant now produces electric-powertrain and engine-management systems. Berea has since become another important piece of the company’s Kentucky manufacturing footprint.
For drivers, the finished technology is supposed to feel uneventful. The vehicle decides when electric power, the combustion engine or a combination of both should do the work, and the trip continues.
Back in Berea, making that transition feel ordinary requires some decidedly sophisticated manufacturing.
Interested in the companies making Kentucky move? Explore manufacturing across the state through the Guide to Kentucky directory at https://www.guidetokentucky.com/manufacturing.
