FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — In a world-first, Manna Drone Delivery, Europe’s largest and most-advanced drone delivery operator, took trick or treating to new heights – delivering candy to families in North Texas by drone. Given the incredibly wet weather the Dallas/Fort Worth area has been experiencing, kids can stay dry and still participate in the Halloween festivities.

Trick or treating kicked-off Manna Drone Delivery’s first US operations – where they’ll be delivering to residents at Pecan Square by Hillwood Communities. Residents will have the opportunity to order a range of food and beverages from both national and local retailers – including a wide selection of Halloween chocolates and candies.

After over four years of operations and over 150,000 flights logged in Europe, we are excited to be touching down in the United States to offer the residents of Dallas/Fort Worth a lightning-quick and sustainable home delivery service,” said Andrew Patton, Head of US for Manna Drone Delivery. “We are taking Halloween to new heights, with a fun new way for kids to trick or treat – especially when the weather isn’t very Halloween compatible!”

“We’re excited to see Manna commercialize drone delivery in the US at the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, bringing an innovative last-mile delivery solution to Pecan Square residents,” said Christopher Ash, senior vice president of aviation business development for Hillwood. “At Hillwood, we are a team collaborating to bring innovative supply chain technologies to North Texas and provide next-level amenities to the communities we reach.”

Manna is also partnering with the Tarrant Area Food Bank, which serves nearly 1 million meals a week to residents in North Texas, by making a donation for every flight conducted this year.

Service will be available on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays to members of the Pecan Square community. Select products and sweet treats from popular local retailers Farmhouse Coffee & Treasures, and The Touring Chocolatier, as well as some notable national brands, will be available for purchase.

To learn more about Manna’s drone delivery services, please visit www.manna.aero.

About Manna Drone Delivery

Manna is the world’s leading residential drone delivery provider, delivering goods quickly, affordably, and safely to customers homes on two continents. Our service operates in the highest population density of any drone delivery operations in the world, partnering with a range of businesses from global giants like Coca-Cola, Tesco and Samsung to dozens of local businesses, delivering goods to customers in just a few minutes.

Multinational real estate developer Hillwood is working to position AllianceTexas as a “catcher’s mitt” for goods traveling north as reshoring has caused manufacturing growth south of the border as well as across the United States, according to a top Hillwood executive. 

Dallas-based Hillwood, the company behind the sprawling 27,000-acre AllianceTexas master-planned development, has historically focused on goods flowing in from Asia and reaching the center of the U.S. Now, as momentum builds around reshoring efforts in Mexico, AllianceTexas is positioned to benefit on the receiving end of goods flowing northward, Mike Berry, president of Hillwood, said in an exclusive interview with the Dallas Business Journal. 

Efforts to bring manufacturing stateside, including advanced manufacturing, have created other positives for AllianceTexas. Last year, Las Vegas-based MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) broke ground on its first rare earth metal, alloy and magnet manufacturing facility, located within AllianceTexas.  

The plant represents a large component of a $700 million investment MP Materials will make to fully restore the U.S. rare earth magnetics supply chain over the next two years. 

Hillwood has had a strong focus on transportation technology since the beginning of AllianceTexas. The creation of the airport in Alliance, now called Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, helped Hillwood develop what has become an inland port. 

Over the years, the company began hosting firms focused on the cutting edge of transportation within AllianceTexas. It turns out, technologies like autonomous trucking and eVTOLs, or electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, were exactly the sort of things some of the development’s major corporate users were interested in, Berry said. 

Some of those corporate partners include Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway Company and Memphis-headquartered FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX).  

“We decided to really take advantage of this 27,000-acre platform that we have in Alliance, with all this infrastructure and all this movement of freight on a daily and hourly basis, to see if we could bring the industry together here and really act as a convener,” Berry said.

AllianceTexas has roughly 8,000 acres left for development. In future industrial projects, Berry said Hillwood will work to incorporate emerging technologies as they become more prevalent within the industry. 

Berry spoke with the Dallas Business Journal about the future of transportation, reshoring and the impact of both those on industrial real estate at the recent UP.Summit event. 

How will changing technologies, such as autonomous trucks, impact the future of commercial real estate?

You’ve got to put in technology and communications systems in your facility that allows these autonomous vehicles to talk to the building and the real estate. On the long haul side, you’re finding now, these long haul autonomous trucking companies will carry a load from, say, Houston to Dallas, but when they get to the destination, say an Amazon facility, they need a place to drop that trailer.

Then, another autonomous vehicle from the yard will come out, pick it up and place it at the right location…

So yard management systems and transportation management systems now have to talk to each other, which requires a very complex set of infrastructure, as well as communications systems. Those are ways that it’ll affect real estate. We’re now looking at designing these drop lots outside our buildings, adjacent to the gates, so that this transfer can happen. 

What about drones involved in last-mile delivery? 

On the air side, we had one client that we built a building for and they’re working with one of these drone carriers on package delivery. They requested, in the lease, the ability to build a drone landing facility adjacent to the building. 

They can literally deliver packages via drone directly from the warehouse to the end user without having to have a step in the middle. From a design standpoint, those are the kinds of things we as a developer and designer have to start incorporating into our thinking.  

How will reshoring and the growth of domestic advanced manufacturing impact AllianceTexas as well as the region? 

MP Materials is a great example, because they are trying to bring back into North America what currently resides in China – our control of the manufacturing ecosystem around battery production. That’s a great example of how reshoring is really happening here in our backyard. 

That’s another thing we’re really focused on right now, how we tap into this movement of manufacturing back to North America. You’re seeing it now with the CHIPS Act and what’s happening with semiconductor expansion in this country. 

Intel is doing a huge project in Ohio. Samsung is doing a huge project in Central Texas. Texas Instruments is doing a huge project in Sherman. 

There’s one thing that’s happening, while not directly U.S., but certainly something that benefits our position here at Alliance. There’s a huge amount of manufacturing expansion and reshoring happening in Mexico. 

Tell me a little more about that.

It’s not just the automotive sector. It’s a number of high-tech industry players. Although we’ve been focused on supply chain movement from Asia to the U.S., and then here to the center of the U.S. and Alliance, we’re now seeing a shift and a growing activity south to north from Mexico. I think that’s only going to continue. 

We’re kind of excited about it as well, because it gives us an opportunity to create a story and become a giant catcher’s mitt for a lot of product that’s being manufactured in Mexico that needs to move up into the U.S. market. It can come right here, and then we become a central place for final assembly, for additional manufacturing, for distribution.   

Read More

Make way for drones, electric cars and autonomous trucks. The seemingly futuristic transportation technologies are close to transforming the way people and cargo travel, some of the world’s biggest names in business and politics were told Thursday at a high-powered gathering at the Perot family’s Circle T Ranch.

At the UP.Summit on Thursday, hundreds of investors came to hear from leading experts in aviation, transportation and defense about the latest innovations that could significantly change the way people and goods move.

“We want to stay on top of the new technology,” said Ross Perot Jr., who leads one of the country’s largest independent property portfolios. “We want to attract the greatest entrepreneurs.”

The gathering this week features major international power players such as former President George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former Secretary of State and Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson.

Perot said artificial intelligence could help with “deconfliction” in the airfield, and manage safety in the air. He also said artificial intelligence has the opportunity to improve the battery to help improve its efficiency.

First, however, he said self-driving trucks will come, especially in the wake of a truck driver shortage and the routes already being tested on Texas roads.

In 2024, Gatik plans to deploy “freight only” trucks without drivers in Texas. Gautam Narang, CEO and co-founder of Gatik, is confident in the technology and its safety features. Next year, the company will discuss more about the route it has planned for Dallas, he said.

“Next year is a big year for us, where we are scaling our freight-only operations with multiple customers on the roads here in D-FW,” Narang said. “These are the roads where we’ll drive on surface streets, everything from traffic lights, intersections. All of that is fair game and highway driving as well.”

Gatik is experimenting with autonomous trucking and is using smaller trucks for shorter and more frequent deliveries from fulfillment centers to stores in Dallas-Fort Worth. Kroger, Sam’s Club and suppliers Georgia Pacific and Pitney-Bowes are among the Fortune 500 companies working locally with Gatik.

There are many autonomous vehicle firms that are using Texas, and more specifically, D-FW as its testing grounds.

Aurora and Kodiak Robotics are the only autonomous driving companies still operating driverless trucks along the nearly 300-mile stretch of Interstate 45 that connects Dallas and Houston. Kodiak said Thursday that it is partnering with shipping giant Maersk for an autonomous trucking route between Houston and Oklahoma City.

Aurora runs autonomous trucks along freight corridors in Texas with a safety driver, but is on track to deploy completely driverless trucks from Dallas to Houston by the end of 2024. Kodiak has been driving a route between Dallas and Houston since 2019.

Cruise, a California-based self-driving technology company backed by General Motors, Honda, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price and Walmart, is conducting tests in Dallas with autonomous ride-hailing vehicles. Waymo, Google’s autonomous driving sister company, pulled back from its driverless truck tests in Texas and instead said it will “focus [its] efforts and investment on ride-hailing.” Last year, Waymo built a 9-acre trucking hub in Lancaster.

Next could come eVTOLs, otherwise known as air taxis, according to Perot. He believes in about 10 years, air taxis will be available and artificial intelligence will help speed up the development.

“Air taxis (have) a human pilot and that (change) will happen quick,” Perot said. “Air taxis with no pilot, our FAA will take their time, because safety is paramount for our FAA.”

This week, at DFW International Airport’s State of the Airport luncheon, CEO Sean Donohue told attendees that the second busiest airport in the world will offer a fully automated passenger experience with urban air mobility, like electric air taxis, by the 2040s.

Another key part of automation in transportation is the popularity of drones.

In August, Walmart announced the expansion of its drone delivery in Dallas-Fort Worth, adding services to two locations in the coming months, including the Walmart Supercenter located at 8555 Preston Road in Frisco and another unannounced location before the end of the year through Google’s drone delivery sister company, Wing.

The locations in Dallas, Garland, Mesquite, Murphy, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett and The Colony join 11 stores offering drone delivery services.

Adam Woodworth, CEO of Google Wing, said the main difference between drone delivery and the rest of aviation is that Wing doesn’t know where its next delivery may be, compared to a scheduled flight that has a timed departure and arrival.

“It’s not just a mission to build airplanes, we need to be able to build a lot of those airplanes and build them very cost-efficient,” Woodworth said.

Perot, whose Hillwood company runs Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, remains hopeful for the future, and it’s a future where transportation and artificial intelligence work together.

“At this event, you will have the next Steve Jobs in the room with an idea, or the next Elon or the next Jeff Bezos,” Perot said. “We want that entrepreneur to know about Texas, to know about Fort Worth, to know about Alliance. If they grow their business, we want them to grow with us.”

Read More

A STEM education event brought electric vertical takeoff aircraft, helicopters, a robotic dog and flying drone deliveries to more than 800 students at Westlake Academy on Tuesday. The event, organized by California venture capital firm UP.Partners and hosted by Dallas-based Perot company Hillwood, was intended to get students at the K-12 charter school excited about the future of mobility and inspire them to pursue aviation careers. Experts say the U.S. will need to meet demand for about 3.5 million STEM jobs by 2025. At the same time, almost 2 million of these jobs could be left unfilled, because there are not enough people with the skills required for careers in STEM. Ross Perot Jr., chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group, said the event is a first-of-its-kind across the country, given the breadth of technology available from across the world for students to engage with.

“These children are seeing things that very few people have ever seen, so it’s very special,” Perot said. At the event, students got a chance to set off model rockets from Colorado-based Estes Rockets. Wing, the drone delivery service owned by Google parent company Alphabet, led a drone delivery of gifts to a few lucky students.

California-based aviation company Opener demonstrated an electric vertical takeoff and landing from its BLACKFLY aircraft. Students also got to view and ask questions about a Jetson electric vertical lift aircraft designed for recreational use and other helicopters. The community engagement event at Westlake Academy comes just days before the 2023 UP.Summit, an “exclusive gathering of the top minds in the world who are working on the future of mobility,” according to a Hillwood spokesperson. The UP.Summit will be held Wednesday through Friday at the Perot Circle T Ranch in Westlake. Event participants will include former President George W. Bush; former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson; Governor Greg Abbott; governors from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee; leaders from the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine; state representatives from Texas, California and Missouri; high-ranking U.S. military leaders from across branches; and executives from Walmart, Tesla, ExxonMobil, Boeing, Bell Textron, Microsoft and more 200 other companies.

Read more 

Clevon, an Estonian self-driving vehicle manufacturer is putting its vehicles out on the streets in North Texas. Residents in Northlake, a town near the Alliance Airport, can now get packages delivered or picked up from PostNet Northlake by Clevon’s vehicles. 

The new service is part of what Clevon executives see as the start of the company’s expansion in the region. The company located its U.S. operations headquarters in Alliance Airport in North Fort Worth last year and plans to put 1,000 vehicles on the roads by 2025, Clevon CEO  Sander Sebastian Agur said. The company has authority to operate in Texas, Arizona, Utah, New Hampshire and West Virginia, he said.

“It’s not a science project,” Agur said. “It’s a real commercial service. And we are already operating on the public streets.” 

Many companies are coming to North Texas to test out and implement driverless vehicles due to lighter regulations and the proximity of the Alliance Airport. 

Clevon (NASDAQ: CLEV) partnered with a local packing and shipping store, PostNet, to deliver parcels to customers in the area. Clevon 1, the company’s electric delivery vehicle, can carry up to six packages to residents using PostNet’s services across three work shifts during the day.

Customers get a special code to enter to receive their package when the vehicle arrives. The vehicles drive up to 20 mph on the road for regulatory and safety purposes, but can go faster. The speed limits on the roads the robot is traveling is limited to 25 or 35 mph. It charges inside Lamar National Bank in Northlake at the end of each day. T-Mobile is the company’s data provider, which helps the machine navigate the roads. 

Clevon chose Northlake because of its proximity to the Alliance Airport, Meelis Anton, Clevon’s chief operating officer in the U.S., said. The company is also working closely with Hillwood, which is developing the area. 

Gary Good, owner of PostNet Northlake, saw the delivery vehicle as an opportunity to better serve customers. His business doesn’t employ drivers. Some customers who sell items on eBay bring 10-50 packages a day to him. A robot carrier can make things easier for them, he said.

“They could just sit there in their house and do more business,” Good said. “They could focus on doing their business, instead of having to make trips up here and load up their vehicle and bring it up to my store and have my team take care of those packages.”

Good said they are still getting the word out about the vehicles after a few weeks of operation. Clevon’s Agur sees opportunities to expand in the aviation sector, using the cars to deliver supplies and other items across the airport. The company already has multiple vehicles operating at the Alliance Airport, Anton said. City of Fort Worth to identify potential commercial partners to implement the technology as well. 

“The problems are big, and the rewards for everybody, for us, and for the consumers, are that much higher if we solve difficult problems,” Agur said.

READ MORE

Clevon, a global autonomous delivery innovator founded in Estonia, has launched a commercial service in the U.S. with PostNet Northlake. Clevon manufactures state-of-the-art Autonomous Robot Carriers (ARCs) and uses them to service PostNet customers in Northlake, Texas. The service has been tested over a few weeks, and local residents who live within a few miles radius of the PostNet office at 100 Plaza Place have been able to get their parcels delivered by the ARC.

PostNet Northlake provides mailbox and package handling services for the residents and businesses in the community.  Clevon’s service offers the convenience of direct doorstep delivery with the continued security these residents want. Clevon will schedule a desired delivery time with each resident, bringing the package directly to them, operating from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. As Clevon scales the ARC delivery services with PostNet Northlake, new additional services can be provided using the technology – like food and grocery deliveries. 

“When others are folding, Clevon is expanding! We are fulfilling our mission to build an infrastructure for making suburban deliveries affordable, safe, and foremost convenient for consumers,” said Sander Sebastian Agur, Clevon’s chief executive officer. “Clevon’s ARCs are transforming how goods are transported and delivered locally, leading to greater convenience and less expense, reduced energy consumption, and improved environmental outcomes. This partnership demonstrates how the future of the last mile deliveries can be experienced already today.”

“We are excited to offer this convenience to the PostNet Northlake community. With the ARC, our customers who appreciate the secure, centralized receipt of mail and packages for their families and/or businesses can watch the ARC deliver straight to their doors. Moreover, customers who run home-based businesses can streamline their busy days by having the ARC securely retrieve their packages and bring them safely to PostNet Northlake. We want to be the problem solvers for our customers’ pain points, and having the Clevon ARC help us do that is amazing,” shared Gary L. Good, multi-unit PostNet owner.

“Northlake is thrilled by the recent commercial deployment of Clevon’s technology which will benefit Northlake’s growing retail and restaurant offerings,” said Northlake mayor David Rettig. “Clevon is forever changing how goods are transported, and we look forward to seeing additional applications in the future.”

Local collaboration matters

The local collaboration is critical for building out an excellent example for the future of mobility. Lamar National Bank is a great partner, as Greg Wilson, the President and CEO of Lamar National Bank, immediately opened his door to provide the ARC with a place to sleep and recharge after each hard day serving the Northlake community. Additionally, Clevon’s U.S. headquarters are at the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ) in Fort Worth, where the company continues to commercialize its autonomous technology. 

The company’s expansion into the North American market comes as the market needs to offer on-demand, same-day, or next-day delivery of goods continues to skyrocket. Clevon’s driverless robot carriers are driving on public roads and enable the transportation of goods in energy-efficient, cost-effective, and scalable ways. Clevon’s ARCs have been on public roads in Europe for over three years and have proven safe and reliable, with a perfect safety record. The company is enabling their customers fulfill targets for making their deliveries more environmentally friendly.

For anyone who likes to complain about North Texas drivers, it might sound alarming to know that soon you’ll be sharing the highways with transport trucks that don’t have a driver at all. The Metroplex has quietly become the new frontier for the development of autonomous trucking, with several companies from around the world setting up operations here — and using North Texas highways for real-world testing. For now, these delivery trucks making stops at Sam’s Clubs, Krogers and other destinations do have a human behind the wheel — a safety driver in case of emergencies or technology glitches. Soon, that will no longer be the case.

The worsening shortage of people to fill trucking jobs is fueling a race among companies to bring to market a dominant driverless technology for the future of moving goods on the nation’s highways. Several of the largest industry players are now in North Texas, lured by the region’s central location on the transportation network and the state’s looser regulations. But that also has some experts worried about just how safe driverless trucks really are, given the technology is so new. An added concern for North Texas is that the companies are testing their trucks on highways here.

FORT WORTH: A NEW HUB FOR AUTONOMOUS TRUCKING

In Fort Worth’s Near Southside neighborhood, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, a division of the Swedish truck and vehicle manufacturer, opened an office in April focused on commercializing, selling and delivering autonomous solutions globally. The office at 401 Bryan Ave. will start Volvo’s U.S. highway activities aimed at transporting goods to and from customer hubs on long-haul trucks.

In partnership with self-driving technology company Aurora, Volvo plans to get a fleet delivering on one lane between Fort Worth and El Paso, and another between Dallas and Houston. To the north, AllianceTexas is home to a Mobility Innovation Zone, which allows for the testing, scaling and commercialization of new technologies. Experts say the zone gives Fort Worth a shot at becoming the Silicon Valley of mobility and innovation.

Autonomous deliverer Gatik expanded to Alliance in mid-2021, where it operates a research and development facility and North Texas operations hub. With offices in Canada and California, Gatik specializes in middle-mile deliveries up to around 300 miles round-trip.

Gatik’s self-driving trucks deliver to more than 30 Sam’s Club locations in the Metroplex. It recently went live with Kroger, moving goods from customer fulfillment centers to grocery stores across North Texas.

Alliance also is home to self-driving trucking companies TuSimple, based in San Diego, and the Swedish company Einride. Meanwhile, Google subsidiary Waymo is testing self-driving trucks on Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston, and California-based Kodiak Robotics operates most of its self-driving operations out of Dallas.

WHY ARE ALL THE KEY PLAYERS COMING TO NORTH TEXAS?

Ian Kinne, director of logistics innovation at AllianceTexas developer Hillwood, said Texas has been the prove-it state for the industry. Kinne said he thinks the state wants to understand the technology and work with these companies to help them commercialize. “DFW has really become the spot for autonomous trucking in the U.S.,” Kinne said.

Texas is attractive to these companies because of its limited regulation, and because a lot of freight is already moving on its highways. Texas does not require autonomous trucks to have a safety driver, but Kinne said most companies still use one to “promote safety in the remote chance an issue occurs.” Kinne said safety is the first thing many of the autonomous trucking companies talk about. And, he said, wide-scale adoption of autonomous driving will be a gradual process.

While some states have different rules on testing and deploying autonomous trucks, Texas is very hands off on regulation, experts say. Texas’ regulatory environment means we could see more of these trucks on our roads. But that’s concerning to Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has been working on self-driving car safety for more than 25 years. Autonomous trucking companies decide for themselves when they think their vehicles are safe enough to operate on public roads, Koopman said.

“The government probably made that decision for jobs and economic growth,” Koopman said. “But the cost of that decision is you’re potentially putting other road users at risk, and there’s no way to figure out how safe it is. That’s the trade-off that’s been made.” Koopman said companies face tremendous pressure to get on the road, show progress and maintain investment of stakeholders. “One hopes the companies are responsible,” Koopman said. “Some have proven they are. Some have proven they are not. Under that kind of financial pressure, even the best leadership might find themselves with pressure to deploy even if they’re not ready. That’s a tough position to be in.”

Koopman said he would prefer to see external oversight that would relieve that pressure on companies to decide when is safe to remove the driver from behind the wheel.

HOW DO SELF-DRIVING TRUCKS WORK?

While companies’ techniques in mastering autonomous trucking vary, there are some common overlaps. Many companies use computer mapping to plan the path of a self-driving truck. In the case of Volvo, sensors log data while driving on a road that helps a computer understand the surroundings. Ceren Wende, the head of marketing and communications for Volvo Autonomous Solutions, said the company can then simulate pop-up scenarios that would change road conditions. These include construction zones, weather and obstacles like animals or the occasional pedestrian.

“We repeatedly train the virtual driver and hardware on these different scenarios and validate the results with real-world driving so we know that the vehicle will behave safely in these situations,” Wende said. Meanwhile, Gatik’s trucks are in continual two-way communication with the company’s remote monitoring centers. Richard Steiner, Gatik’s head of policy and communications, said from there, employees monitor the fleet and can provide remote assistance if there is a lane closure or unexpected construction. “Gatik’s remote supervision system has been developed to leverage human intuition, which ensures our autonomous fleet remains fundamentally independent, while safeguarding certain advantages of human-to-vehicle collaboration,” Steiner said.

While maps do a lot of the heavy lifting, they’re not necessarily foolproof, experts say. Self-driving expert Koopman said one problem is making sure frequently changing construction zones get updated on computer maps. “People will say they’re going to put all the construction zones on a map, but the first vehicle to see a construction zone doesn’t know it’s there,” Koopman said. “That can help other vehicles after the first one, but if that first vehicle is an automated truck, and it doesn’t know how construction zones work, you’ve got a problem.” One thing Koopman is not worried about is autonomous trucks merging and changing lanes. Most companies have spent considerable time teaching their vehicles to merge with the right amount of assertiveness based on the culture of the city to match prevailing traffic conditions, he said.

Koopman does worry about unusual things that happen on the ride, like overturned vehicles, bicyclists, crossing animals, grass fires and emergency vehicles. While the industry promotes safety, Koopman argues, there is not tangible proof or data to support autonomous trucks being safer than human drivers. “They could be safer — I’d be delighted if they were — but we don’t know,” Koopman said. “We can’t set policies assuming they’re safer, because there’s no data.” Despite his safety reservations, Koopman acknowledged the U.S. trucking industry’s labor shortage is a legitimate reason to pursue autonomous technology. The American Trucking Associations estimated a shortage of nearly 78,000 drivers last year and projects the shortage could surpass 160,000 drivers by 2030.

Meanwhile, leaders across the industry affirm safety is their main priority, and while North Texas trucks may still have a safety driver inside the vehicle, that’s not the case everywhere.

HOW SOON WILL WE SEE TRUCKS WITHOUT A HUMAN DRIVER?

Before coming to North Texas, Gatik began operations with food retailer Loblaw in Canada and went fully driverless last year. The company also began commercial operations with Walmart in Arkansas, where the retailer is based, in June 2019. Gatik pulled the safety driver out of its trucks in August 2021, Steiner said. “Safety is table stakes, front and center of everything we do,” Steiner said. “It runs deep within the fabric of the company. We always commence operations with a safety driver on board for safety, validation and verification purposes as we ramp up towards driver out on every single new route.

It took about two years to go driver-out in Arkansas, and about 19 months to go driver-out in Canada, Steiner said. “As we ramp up towards driver-out with our customers in Texas, that timeline will continue to shrink,” Steiner said. Steiner said Gatik is looking to remove drivers from vehicles in North Texas by 2024. Volvo’s Sasko Cuklev, head of on-road solutions, could only say his company is “getting close.” “We don’t have all the answers,” Cuklev said. ‘There is a transformation ongoing. We of course want to be part of that, but also learn along the way what is feasible and what is not.”

Cuklev said the race is not to necessarily be first on the road, but rather to develop an industrialized, safe and scalable solution that is commercially viable. Volvo has an ambition to be “one of the winners here,” Cuklev said. “Everything we do, we do with safety in mind, and we will never compromise on that,” Cuklev said.

Read More

MP Materials is building a new permanent magnet factory in Alliance, part of greater Fort Worth, Texas. This is part of a $700 million investment to re-shore a critical but often overlooked part of the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain – the manufacture of rare-earth permanent magnets. China is the dominant supplier globally controlling 87% of the global permanent magnet market, and thanks to its control of most of the world’s rare-earth production it is also the low cost producer. Yet MP Materials is building a fully domestic U.S. supply chain in the face of these challenges. There are six parts of its strategy that warrant a closer look, as they could serve as a model for others who are trying to re-shore the production of strategically important products.

1. Vertically integrate and control the inputs

Much of the concern around the security of EV supply chains has centered on lithium, the key metal ingredient of high-capacity batteries. Permanent magnets have gotten less attention, but they deserve a closer look. They play a critical role in compact and efficient motors like those required for EVs, the generators used in wind turbines, and a vast array of products ranging from computer disk drives to the motors used ubiquitously in just about anything that turns electricity into motion. This makes permanent magnets a critical component in most aerospace and defense systems as well. The Pentagon recently halted deliveries of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II multirole combat aircraft (also assembled in Fort Worth) because the Honeywell-made turbomachine (part of the starter generator assembly) had magnet materials coming from China. The most powerful permanent magnets are made from an alloy of neodymium (Nd), iron (Fe), and Boron (B) in the form Nd2Fe14B. For those of you who aren’t chemists, this means two parts of the rare-earth element neodymium, 14 parts iron, and one part boron. As discussed earlier, rare-earths are a family of elements that most people have never heard of, yet they play critical roles in many modern technologies. Neodymium magnets are manufactured with either a sintering process, or a bonding process. General MotorsGM -2.8% was one of the original inventors of this magnet type in 1984.

MP Materials controls one of the world’s premier sources of rare-earth ores – the Mountain Pass mine in California 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. For decades it was the most important source of rare earths in the world. It’s also the only developed commercial source of ore in the Western hemisphere. Historically the company sold the mined ore to Shenghe Resources in Singapore (who had put money into the company) who in turn sold it to processors and magnet makers in China. With the increasing demand for EVs and wind turbines, it made a lot of sense to vertically integrate into magnet manufacturing, assuming you could find people who knew how to make them (and the company assures me that it has). Compared to the scramble we see among battery makers trying to secure supplies of lithium, MP Materials already has a lock on the supply of the most critical ingredient. That’s a huge advantage.

2. Acquire assets on favorable terms

The prior owner of the Mountain Pass Mine, Molycorp, Inc., had invested over $1.7 billion between 2011 and 2014, primarily in the construction of processing and separation facilities but also in implementing a process flow that used a lot of chemicals to extract the rare-earths. Molycorp went bankrupt, and MP Materials was able to acquire the mine and processing facilities in 2017 for $20.5 million. Acquiring assets on favorable terms is always a big plus, as it means you have less capital tied up (in this case, a LOT less).

3. Harness process innovation

After the ore is dug out of the mine, it needs to be processed to extract the rare earth metals, usually in the form of oxides, from all the other stuff you don’t want (called “gangue”). The Mountain Pass mine contains a mineral called bastnasite, and the first step is crushing the mined rocks and grinding them into a milled slurry. The slurry then goes to a froth flotation step where the bastnasite floats while the gangue is washed away to produce a mineral concentrate. MP Materials has optimized a process that allows recycling of 95% of the water used in flotation and tailings management. Compared to the predecessor company, MP Materials has been able to produce more than 3.2x the volume of concentrate using the same capital equipment. That means their costs per ton of rare earth oxide went way down.

In the next step, moving from concentrate production to the separation of individual rare earth oxides, MP implemented a new chemical extraction scheme to reduce costs and the associated environmental footprint. The previous owners had not optimized the process to maximize the production of Nd and Praseodymium (Pr), which are essential to magnets. Instead, they implemented a complex process that maximized production of all rare earths, including abundant but low-value elements that are not essential to magnets like cerium (Ce) and lanthanum (La). To optimize their processing facilities to maximize the production of Nd and Pr, MP Materials reintroduced a roasting circuit, which enables the removal of low-value cerium early in the refining process and dramatically reduces the energy, processing chemicals, and wastewater required to produce higher-value NdPr. This material is what MP Materials plans to transform into magnets in its new Fort Worth factory.

4. Secure stable demand

Investors always get nervous about large production operations that require big capital investments. How am I going to earn a return on my investment? Who’s going to buy what we produce? One solution is to secure an “offtake agreement,” which means contracting with a customer to buy the output. MP Materials signed up General Motors (GM) to buy rare earth materials, alloys, and finished magnets for the electric motors that it will use in the GMC Hummer, Cadillac LYRIQ, Chevrolet Silverado, and other EV models that will use its Ultium vehicle platforms, with a gradual production ramp beginning later this year.

Offtake agreements are quite common for many green energy projects, as they provide a degree of demand certainty for investments that take a long time to earn a return. Many wind energy projects don’t get started with construction until an offtake agreement is signed. Another possibility is a direct project investment: GM invested $650 million in Lithium Americas Corporation to help it develop the Thacker Pass mine in Humboldt County, Nevada.

5. Take advantage of interim subsidies to build scale

One of the forces that really makes this whole project work are subsidies for the production of critical minerals under Section 45X of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This provision provides a 10% tax credit for the production of rare earths at Mountain Pass and other critical minerals production facilities across America. But Matt Sloustcher, the head of Government Affairs at MP Materials, pointed out that “in 117,000 words of the Inflation Reduction Act, the word magnet was not actually printed once.” To fill this gap, members of Congress recently introduced legislation to provide a production credit for the manufacturing of permanent magnets. Of course, eventually any subsidies will come to an end, and in the meantime MP Materials can build scale and come down the learning curve on cost. This is exactly what Chinese EV manufacturers did, so it’s not a bad model.

6. Choose a location that wants you, one where you can access talent

MP Materials chose Fort Worth because the city wanted them. “We recognized the importance of these magnets when it comes to domestic infrastructure, and how important they are to ensuring that Texas and the U.S. has direct access to these kinds of technologies,” explained Robert Sturns, Director of Economic Development for the City of Fort Worth. “We wanted to do everything we could to help out and ensure that Fort Worth could be part of it.” That included a seven-year tax abatement, a space in Alliance that was permitted for heavy industrial, which meant MP Materials was able to quickly secure permits to get construction going. Speed of permitting is an area where the U.S. suffers badly in comparison to abroad.

Workforce availability is also key. The Materials Science and Engineering Department at Texas A&M is growing quickly and will soon be one of the largest Materials Science departments in the country. Locally, the University of Texas at Arlington is heavily engaged in training next-generation engineers, and Tarrant County College is helping to teach the skills MP Materials is looking for in new employees.

MP Material’s domestic manufacturing plan is a great example of what a re-shoring strategy could look like. Let’s hope it works.

FORT WORTH, Texas (May 2, 2023) – Hillwood announces recent lease renewal and expansion with Cummins Clean Fuel Technologies, further expanding their alternative fuel technology footprint in AllianceTexas and the North Texas region. Cummins Clean Fuel Technologies manufactures Cummins-branded natural gas fuel delivery systems at their facility in AllianceTexas for the North American commercial vehicle market.

“We are proud to be a leader in renewable natural gas (RNG) in the commercial vehicle industry and continue to support the intermediate and long-term growth potential of RNG vehicles due to the environmental and economic benefits, imminent regulatory requirements and corporate ESG goals,” said Mike Zimmerman, General Manager, Cummins Clean Fuel Technologies. “With our newly expanded space, we are better able to meet the growing demand for natural gas fuel systems as well as innovate and bring new products to market to support a wide variety of customers,” Zimmerman added.

When powered by RNG, using methane collected from organic waste as the primary fuel source, engines can be credited with a neutral to negative carbon index, resulting in net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at or below zero. Cummins Clean Fuel Technologies is expanding its operations to include an additional 50% of manufacturing space and will now occupy nearly 160,000 square feet in AllianceTexas’ Gateway 57 building at 1051 Republic Drive, Roanoke, Texas.  

“Hillwood’s commitment to convene leaders in logistics and supply chain innovation and alternative fuel solutions, here at AllianceTexas, is showcased by our enthusiastic reception of Cummins Clean Fuel Technologies expansion,” said Sam Rhea, director of industrial leasing at Hillwood. “By offering a variety of CNG fuel system configurations, Cummins Clean Fuel Technologies is well-positioned to meet the needs of fleets at AllianceTexas and beyond who have adopted natural gas technology.”

Hillwood, the developer of the 27,000-acre master-planned, mixed-use AllianceTexas development, recently established the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ) in North Texas. The AllianceTexas MIZ is leading smart infrastructure deployment to create a robust ecosystem for commercializing new technologies across the supply chain. The MIZ connects the people, places and ideas needed to propel innovation in surface and air mobility forward by offering businesses full access to an unparalleled ecosystem, resources and partnerships essential to comprehensively scale and commercialize the latest logistics and mobility technologies.

AllianceTexas is also home to a robust e-commerce network, including Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, BNSF Railway Alliance Intermodal Facility, FedEx Ground Hub, two UPS Ground Sort Hubs, the FedEx Express Southwest Regional Air Hub and Amazon Air Regional Hub.

Michael Haggar and John Worthen of JLL represented Cummins in the transaction. Samuel Rhea and Reid Goetz of Hillwood represented Hillwood.

About AllianceTexas

AllianceTexas is an unparalleled regional success story that has transformed the North Texas economy and connected the area to global industry. Consisting of 27,000 acres, the Hillwood development is anchored by the world’s first dedicated industrial airport, Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, and hosts one of the nation’s premier intermodal hubs. Today, AllianceTexas is home to 560 companies that have created more than 66,000 direct jobs and has approximately 55 million square feet of developed commercial real estate assets. The development’s cumulative impact since 1989 is an estimated $111 billion for the North Texas region. AllianceTexas is a mobility innovation zone and boasts corporate headquarters, healthcare providers, higher education centers, shopping and entertainment destinations, and vibrant residential communities. For additional information, please visit www.alliancetexas.com.

###

MP Materials Begins Construction on Texas Rare Earth Magnetics Factory to Restore Full U.S. Supply Chain

• MP Materials and General Motors simultaneously announce a definitive supply agreement commencing in late 2023 to produce rare earth alloy and magnets for GM’s EV programs
• The facility will create approximately 150 skilled jobs and approximately 1,300 indirect jobs
• MP Materials’ Texas magnetics facility will source materials from Mountain Pass, California, and produce magnets powering approximately 500,000 EV motors per year, with potential to scale
• The facility is a substantial component of a $700 million investment MP Materials will make to fully restore the U.S. rare earth magnetics supply chain over the next two years
• Integrated recycling and leading environmental capabilities will deliver world class sustainability to support the energy transition

FORT WORTH, TEXAS, April 21, 2022 – MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) today commemorates the start of construction at its first rare earth metal, alloy, and magnet manufacturing facility, located in Fort Worth, Texas. The first-of-its kind U.S. facility is a substantial component of a $700 million investment the company will make over the next two years to fully restore the U.S. rare earth magnetics supply chain. The project will create around 150 high-skill jobs and 1,300 indirect jobs and is located in Hillwood’s 27,000-acre, mixed-use development, AllianceTexas.

In parallel, MP Materials and General Motors (NYSE: GM) are co-announcing a definitive supply agreement to produce alloy and magnets for GM’s EV programs. The definitive supply agreement solidifies the terms of a binding agreement announced by MP Materials and GM in December. Under the long-term agreement, MP Materials will supply U.S.-sourced and manufactured rare earth materials, alloy, and finished magnets for the electric motors in more than a dozen models using GM’s Ultium Platform, with a gradual production ramp that is expected to begin in late 2023, starting with alloy.

MP Materials’ Fort Worth facility will have the capacity to produce approximately 1,000 tonnes of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets per year, supporting the production of approximately 500,000 EV traction motors, with room to scale. In addition to EVs, NdFeB magnets are critical inputs to robots, wind turbines, drones, defense systems, and many other high-growth technologies. Adamas Intelligence, an independent research firm, forecasts that global demand for NdFeB magnets will triple by 2035 on the back of rising demand for EV traction motors, wind power generators, energy efficient consumer appliances, and more.

In February, the Department of Defense awarded MP Materials $35 million to refine and separate heavy rare earth elements at the company’s Mountain Pass, California, rare earth materials production facility. MP’s Texas magnetics factory will source refined feedstock from Mountain Pass and transform it into finished products, delivering an end-to-end supply chain, including mining and refining, metal, alloy, and magnet manufacturing, and recycling.

Mountain Pass is a closed loop, zero-discharge facility with a dry tailings process that recycles more than 1.7 billion liters of water per year. To optimize for efficiency and sustainability, byproduct generated from alloy and magnet manufacturing will be recycled in a closed loop to every extent possible.

James Litinsky, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, MP Materials

“Bringing magnetics capabilities home is transformational for MP Materials and America’s supply chains. I am very proud that after a series of executive orders spanning multiple presidential administrations MP Materials is leading the restoration of the full supply chain and the revitalization of the American manufacturing spirit in our sector.”

Anirvan Coomer, Executive Director, Global Purchasing & Supply Chain, General Motors

“The new MP Materials magnetics facility in Fort Worth, Texas, will play a key role in GM’s journey to build a secure, scalable, and sustainable EV supply chain. As the foundational automotive customer of the Fort Worth facility, GM will use the products from this plant in the GMC HUMMER EV, Cadillac LYRIQ, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and more than a dozen models based on GM’s Ultium platform. We also look forward to collaborating with MP Materials from a public policy perspective to seek policies that are supportive of the establishment of an efficient U.S.-based rare earth and magnet supply chain.”

Ross Perot Jr., Chairman, Hillwood and The Perot Group

“Today is an exciting day for North Texas and our entire country. MP Materials is not only bringing their state-of-the art magnetics facility to AllianceTexas, but also reshoring important next-generation manufacturing jobs to America. Securing and developing rare earth materials is one of the most important national security issues of our day, and we’re proud that AllianceTexas can partner with MP Materials to play a key role in America’s ability to power its future.”

The Honorable Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator for Texas

“The United States needs to do everything we can to end our dangerous dependence on China for rare earth elements and critical minerals across the entire supply chain. It is both significant and important that MP Materials is going beyond mining and into alloying and manufacturing, and I’m deeply proud of the role Texas is playing in these projects.”

The Honorable Kay Granger, U.S. Representative for Texas

“MP’s investment will bring hundreds of new jobs and millions in economic growth to the TX-12 community. Rare earth materials are crucial for many defense systems, and by producing these much-needed magnets, this facility will reduce our dependence on countries like China. For the sake of our national security, we must continue to increase domestic rare earth production, and I’m proud that we will do that right here in Fort Worth.”

The Honorable Beth Van Duyne, U.S. Representative for Texas

“Rare earth magnets are essential for U.S. economic and national security, and it is vital to our national interest that we manufacture these components at scale here at home. I applaud MP Materials for building this landmark facility in Fort Worth, and I’m pleased that Texas is at the forefront of restoring this important supply chain back to America.”

The Honorable Marc Veasey, U.S. Representative for Texas

“Rare earth magnets are critical to the energy transition and security of the United States. It is essential we manufacture these components in the United States from domestic materials sourced in an environmentally responsible manner. The people of TX-33 are prepared to support and lead this effort.”

The Honorable Michael Burgess, U.S. Representative for Texas

“When it comes to solving the energy crisis facing our nation, we need innovative and visionary solutions at the forefront. It is exciting that Texas is able to welcome another energy provider today with the groundbreaking of MP Materials’ new rare earth alloying and magnet manufacturing facility. I hope you will join me in welcoming MP Materials to our community.”

The Honorable Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas

“Congratulations to MP Materials on the groundbreaking of their new magnet manufacturing facility and engineering headquarters in Fort Worth. This incredible investment will not only create more than 100 new jobs for hardworking Texans, but will also bolster the state’s supply chain in high-tech industries while solidifying Texas as a mecca for advanced manufacturing and innovation. It’s thanks to industry innovators like MP Materials that ‘Made in Texas’ continues to be the most powerful global brand.”

The Honorable Mattie Parker, Mayor of Fort Worth

“This new MP Materials facility is an excellent fit for the groundbreaking work being done at AllianceTexas, and it presents an incredible opportunity to bring more advanced manufacturing jobs home to the U.S. right here in Fort Worth. Our local, state, and national economic and mobility goals require secure development of rare earth magnets, and I am proud that Fort Worth will serve as a center for our nation’s focus on advancing this effort.”

About MP Materials

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) is the largest producer of rare earth materials in the Western Hemisphere. The Company owns and operates the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility in California, North America’s only active and scaled rare earth production site. Separated rare earth elements are critical inputs to the world’s most powerful and efficient magnets found in electric vehicles, drones, defense systems, wind turbines and various advanced technologies. The Company is developing U.S. metal, alloy and magnet manufacturing capacity to build these critical components domestically. More information is available at https://mpmaterials.com/.

Join the MP Materials community on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

# # #

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “seek,” “will,” “target,” or similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company’s expected investment to restore the rare earth supply chain in the United States, the expected number of employees and jobs being created in connection with the Company’s Forth Worth facility, statements regarding the long-term agreement with General Motors and the Company’s ability and timing to supply U.S.-produced NdFeB alloy and magnets. Such statements are all subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that could significantly affect the Company’s future financial results and business.

Accordingly, the Company cautions that the forward-looking statements contained herein are qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by such statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to the Company; continued demand for NdFeB magnets which may decrease materially in the future; risks related to the Company’s long-term agreement with General Motors; the Company’s ability to produce and supply NdFeB magnets to third parties, including General Motors, is subject to a number of uncertainties and contingencies; the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, on any of the foregoing risks; and those risk factors discussed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend to update publicly any forward-looking statements except as required by law. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this earnings release may not occur.

Contact

Matt Sloustcher

[email protected]