North Carolina is where the rubber meets the road for nearly 300 auto manufacturing establishments, which is no surprise considering our 26,000-strong industry workforce and low tax burden.

Meet some of the automotive, truck and heavy machinery companies doing business in North Carolina:

Aisin AW logo     BorgWarner logo     Bridgestone logo     Caterpillar logo

Continental logo     Cooper Standard Automotive logo     Daimler logo     Denso logo

Freightliner logo     GKN Driveline logo     Goodyear logo     Thomas Built Buses logo

Just like the products they make, our auto and heavy machinery industries are built from the ground up.

Whether it’s for entertainment, transportation or getting work done, North Carolina appreciates anything with an engine. That, coupled with the following reasons, are partly why the auto manufacturing industry here has grown 25% over last five years:

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  • The lowest corporate income tax rate in the U.S.
    • 2.5% corporate tax rate
    • NC is ranked No. 1 for lowest state and local tax burden in the United States by Ernst & Young and the Council on State Taxation
  • Access to four deep-water seaports
    • Ports in Wilmington, NC and Morehead City, NC
    • NC Ports provide some of the quickest turnaround times on the East Coast, with low costs and easy access to NC’s rail and highway systems
    • Easy access to the ports of Charleston, SC and Norfolk, VA
  • Access to the largest consolidated rail system in the U.S.
    • 3,200+ miles (5,150 km) of track
    • Easy access to major seaports and manufacturing hubs in the Southeast
  • Reliable, low-cost electricity
    • NC’s average industrial electricity rate is more than 8 percent lower than the national average

  • The largest manufacturing workforce in the Southeast
    • More than 460,000 manufacturing workers in NC
    • Tenth-largest manufacturing workforce in the nation
    • Fifth-highest gross state product from manufacturing, at 20 percent
  • An educated and highly trained workforce
    • Three Tier 1 research universities within 25 miles of one another:
      • Duke University
      • North Carolina State University
      • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • 125 public and private colleges and universities across the state
    • NC’s 58-campus community college system offers a variety of training and classes within 25 miles of every resident in the state
  • Customized training programs
    • NCWorks, the state’s comprehensive workforce development platform, offers customizable training for new and existing businesses in the state
  • A readymade workforce from the military
    • NC is home to the third-largest military population in the U.S.
    • Every year, approximately 20,000 skilled service members will transition out of the military through NC’s Department of Defense installations

  • North Carolina Center for Automotive Research
    • NCCAR offers secure assistance to the automotive industry for product development and testing
    • A 2-mile, bi-directional road course
    • A 2-acre vehicle dynamics area
    • A 7-acre dirt facility
  • Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems Center
    • The FREEDM Systems Center researches approaches and solutions to optimize the electric grid
    • Research and development to support the broader use of electric vehicles
    • Research areas include power electronics packaging, controls theory, solid state transformers, fault isolation devices, and power systems simulation and demonstration
  • North Carolina Motorsports and Automotive Research Center
    • NCMARC houses motorsports research facilities
    • Assets include a water tunnel, a wind tunnel, and alternative propulsion dynamometer test cells
    • Computational labs and other research facilities also available
  • Advanced Transportation Energy Center
    • ATEC develops electric vehicle technologies
    • Resources include power electronics and power system facilities
    • Battery and semiconductor research facilities also available
 

If you have an automotive industry business project, contact a state economic developer using the webform below.

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