Electric Vans Will Be Built in Chatsworth

A company that will begin to build electric delivery vans as soon as January has signed a 5-year lease on a 27,734-square-foot facility in Chatsworth.

Boulder Electric Vehicles will produce about 1,000 trucks a year with 30 workers, but could increase to 3,000 vehicles and 150 workers in Chatsworth, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will announce today at the International Electric Vehicle Symposium at the Los Angeles Convention Center, that the company  is already moving into a building at 9655 Irondale Ave.

The start-up, based in Lafayette, CO, won a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission to help it expand into California.

“We chose Los Angeles because of its access to a skilled, educated work force, close proximity to the ports and a large population which is leading in adoption of electric vehicles,” said Boulder Chief Executive Carter Brown in a statement issued by real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

The Chatsworth plant is also within the boundaries of a business enterprise zone, giving the company tax breaks and other incentives, the Business Journal reported.

Unlike other Los Angeles electric vehicle companies which manufacture vehicles elsewhere, Boulder plans to assemble its vehicles here for sale in California and for export to Asia.