Motor City West?

When Ford Motor Co. moved its North American Premier Automotive Group to California's up-and-coming city of Irvine in 2000, people took to calling the community “Motor City West” and began forecasting the day Detroit would be dubbed “Irvine East.”

While eight auto makers and a handful of firms that service the industry, such as Kelly Blue Book, have located in Irvine in some capacity, the Orange County community has a ways to go before anyone confuses it with Detroit.

Nevertheless, it's off to a good start. Along with Ford's PAG headquarters, Mazda North America Operations, Kia Motors America and performance car producer Saleen Inc. are headquartered in Irvine.

Irvine also is home to Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design of North America, the Hyundai Motor America Design Center, Toyota Motor Corp.'s Material Handling Group's U.S. headquarters and Saab Cars USA Inc.'s regional headquarters.

It also is becoming a nice place to study the future of the industry.

Irvine is home to the University of California Irvine, an automotive think-tank of sorts, thanks to the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) based here.

The federal government's charge to the NFCRC “is to bridge the gap between engineering science and practical application,” Director Scott Samuelson says.

Working with Toyota, university officials currently are testing hydrogen-fueled vehicles and accompanying infrastructure through a private shared-usage program. About 20 graduate students, along with a small number of undergraduates, participate in the program.

The significance of having the NFCRC within Irvine's borders is that it diversifies the area's expertise and puts it on the national map when it comes to future technology, Samuelson says.

Such diversification is going to be necessary if Irvine wants to be a Motor City West.

Irvine was founded in 1960 as a master-planned community and is part of a larger tract known as “The Irvine Ranch” — which also includes portions of Newport Beach, Tustin, Orange and Anaheim.

Irvine is the only serious automotive hub among them and one of the legitimate heavy hitters in Southern California's bustling car industry.

Michael Williams, vice president-corporate marketing of The Irvine Co., a development company credited with putting the region's master plan together, says more than 50% of the “ranch” is earmarked as “open space for recreation and habitat preservation.”

Irvine's annual mean income is $98,000, with mean housing prices skyrocketing near the half-million-dollar mark. The population is expected to hit 151,000 in 2005, 20% more than 1995, but far below what the community could accommodate.

Some 34% of Irvine's adult population has attained a college degree, and 24% have completed graduate school, both of which exceed Silicon Valley's education rates by about 10%, claims the Irvine Chamber of Commerce.

The quaintness, cleanliness and security help the city retain more of its workers as residents than any other community in Orange County, a chamber spokesman says. With the rate of Irvine's business growth, the city may have to build more houses with larger garages to appeal to car guys.

Local government and The Irvine Co. currently are trying to woo more auto business to the city's 5,000-acre (2,023-ha) Irvine Spectrum research and technology park.

The Spectrum, which is surrounded by some 2,500 businesses in three adjacent business parks, already houses PAG, Kia and Mazda operations. Williams says the park is looking to become one of the world's leading incubators for automotive design.

But it will take hard work, because Irvine is located smack in the middle of Southern California's booming automotive design community. Nearly every auto maker already has established design facilities in the region.

Auto makers from General Motors Corp. to Volkswagen AG to Volvo Cars have given major projects to Southern California-based design houses and have come away with successful results.

The penetration of established design operations up and down Southern California's Pacific seaboard suggests Irvine should consider broadening its horizons to include interior specialists, computer-aided design suppliers or other lower-tier companies, Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor of the Irvine-based Kelly Blue Book, tells Ward's.

A spokesman for The Irvine Co. says the city is happy to welcome any auto business. “Diversity” in the ranks of auto companies located here “can only be a good thing,” he says.

However, the development company continually refers to PAG as the ideal business model for companies it would like to attract.

No matter which company may choose future residence in Irvine, “it's safe to say we have room for another PAG,” the spokesman says, which means at least one more 300,000-sq.-ft. (27,870-sq.-m) 5-story office building is welcome.

But Vogelheim, a 20-year Southern California veteran and influential in the Anaheim Auto Show's recent rise in visibility, says Irvine is not as “inspirational” or trendy as other design hotbeds, such as GM's facility in North Hollywood or Porsche AG's Huntington Beach locale.

Nissan Design America, nestled in the picturesque northern tip of San Diego, about 70 miles (113 km) south of Irvine and even farther away from Nissan North America Inc. headquarters in Gardena, is a perfect example of the isolation that is sometimes needed for design.

While the studio's 350Z sports car arguably is its most California-like creation, U.S. Design Chief Bruce Campbell says Nissan's California staffers also penned the Maxima and Altima sedans and the Pathfinder and Xterra SUVs.

Campbell attributes some of Nissan Design America's success to its locale. Since its design centers are not beholden to supply chains or product-development complexes, Nissan's team can work in a degree of collective seclusion that is crucial to the creative process, he says.

It also is very close to the urban life of dynamic San Diego, the sort of proximity many auto makers cite as important in identifying future trends.

Still, suburban Irvine has proven it can nurture creativity, even if it does not offer quite the cosmopolitan cache of some other California locations.

Lead Designer Kenneth Saward says Mazda's design house in Irvine, which employs only a handful of stylists, traditionally works on projects a little further out in the future than the Nissan facility, focusing on advanced trends that are being born in California.

Seward's team of 20-, 30- and 40-something designers has traveled the world, and members say Southern California is so diverse its influence can't be ignored, regardless of where the office is located.

The unit has developed important vehicles for Mazda, such as the Miata, and significantly influenced others — including the innovative RX-8 sports car.

Volvo Cars of North America LLC headquarters in Irvine and its nearby design center has at least one styling coup in its history — the S80 sedan. President and CEO Victor Doolan calls Volvo's operations in Irvine “a university for us.”

The region between the Rockies and the Pacific Ocean contains 66 million people and, “it is the biggest premium automobile market in the world,” he says, noting the Japanese presence in Southern California shows “you have to be here.”

Being in Irvine specifically has advantages, Doolan says. “It first of all enables us to understand the largest (U.S.) market (and premier luxury market). We also see firsthand the diversity that has become prevalent in this country, specifically here in Southern California.

“Geographically, we can see our cars operating in desert conditions, Mediterranean conditions (and) snow conditions,” he says. “Death Valley gives the best of both worlds, with the hottest climate (in the summer) and coldest climate in the winter.

“In (northern California), for example, we get a very good experience of our all-wheel-drive cars and the versatility in the south (allows us) good experience with performance. Oh yeah, and (Southern California) is a nice place to live,” Doolan adds. He's paying closer attention to such things, now. Doolan recently announced he'll retire next year.