Sussex County on list of sites for possible EV plant

Sussex County is among sites being researched by an electric vehicle manufacturer for a plant offering as many as 2,000 jobs.

The plant would manufacture the new electric Triton H SUV, as well as a semi-truck built on the same chassis.

Robert Richards, a spokesman for Triton H, said talks with officials in several states are ongoing, but his first choice would be Delaware, and preferably Sussex County. Richards grew up spending weekends in Bethany Beach, lived at the beach during his college years and worked at resort-area restaurants.

Richards, based in Pennsylvania, said the company would like to bring back manufacturing jobs to an area in real need of employment, such as Sussex County.

He has plans to reach out to Sussex County and Delaware officials in the near future.

He said the company would need some state funding with a tax credit to consumers who purchase the vehicles.

Richards said the high-end SUV has a 700-mile charge range with a two-hour hyper charge system.

Preorders are being accepted on the company's website at www.tritonev.co. The company, Tritonev, is a subsidiary of Triton Solar based in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Richards said the company's plan is to open vehicle manufacturing, battery production and battery recycling plants, which could be in the same or different locations, requiring parcels with hundreds of acres.

Passion for electric vehicles

To say that Richards is passionate about the project and electric vehicles would be an understatement.

“We are talking about ushering in the future,” he said during a recent phone interview.

Richards said he looks not far into the future and sees a dramatic shift to more and more people driving electric vehicles and truckers hauling loads in state-of-the art electric trucks.

He said he can see a day when the majority of Americans who drive to work will have their car charging while at the office or while eating at a restaurant. “I see that for the whole country. It's not that far out there,” he said.

“The way we are heading is not a sustainable future, and it won't end well if we don't go in a different direction,” he said. That direction is a switch to electric vehicles to cut the nation's dependency on gasoline.

“People have to wake up. It's time to forget that idea of going to the gas station. It's not going to last,” he said.

Richards said the trend around the world is to manufacture smaller and cheaper electric vehicles. He said the company's long-range plans could possibly include a smaller, lower-priced vehicle. He said Tesla, the country's leader in EV production, is coming out with a $19,000 vehicle.

“We want to take this idea from nothing to something that provides a lot of value to a lot of people,” he said.

EV sales expected to increase

According to a report from the Edison Electric Institute and the Institute for Electric Innovation, by 2030, there will be more than 18 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads, or about 7 percent of all vehicles. Sales of new electric vehicles are expected to exceed 3.5 million in 2030, an increase of 20 percent. The report also found that 9.6 million charging stations will be required to support the increase, which will require a significant investment in EV charging infrastructure.

Electric vehicles are expected to reach 10 percent of global passenger vehicle sales in 2025, with that number rising to 28 percent in 2030 and 58 percent in 2040. EVs currently make up 3 percent of global car sales.

For more information, go to www.tritonev.co.