ASC Deciding This Year on Niche Plant

Too many concept cars have passed through the North American International Auto Show over the years without ever going into production.

American Specialty Cars Inc. is endeavoring to halt this trend by providing an outlet for low-volume niche vehicles that auto makers would love to produce but cannot establish the proper business case to do so.

“It's time to stop the madness,” Paul Wilbur, president and CEO of the Southgate, MI, supplier, says at the show. “We're going to put a stake in the ground right now. We're pro-life for cool cars.”

Wilbur tells Ward's he expects ASC to announce this year whether it will build or purchase a plant specifically to assemble low-volume niche vehicles for one or more auto makers.

ASC is evaluating sites in the U.S. and in Mexico, where labor is less expensive. “Our process tends to be non-automated, non-robotic, non-conveyor; so labor rates are a big deal to us,” Wilbur says.

General Motors Corp. announced in November the historically under-utilized Lansing, MI, Craft Centre, which has been assembling the slow-selling Chevrolet SSR roadster pickup, will close this year. A memo to SSR suppliers confirms the last day of production is March 17.

ASC has had significant experience with the Craft Centre, as it assumed much of the development responsibilities for the SSR program. ASC has its own Lansing, MI, plant, which ships 42 subassemblies direct to the Craft Centre for the SSR. ASC manages 90% of the SSR's content.

Wilbur is dismissive when asked about rumors ASC could purchase the Craft Centre from GM. Still, he confirms ASC sees “some opportunities” in Michigan. “And those Michigan opportunities are UAW-based facilities.”

Wilbur says he is open to working with the United Auto Workers for any niche plant in the U.S., so long as the union accepts supplier-level wage rates, which are lower than OEM rates.

“We could never afford to do it at GM's (wage rate),” Wilbur says.

ASC's current plant in Lansing — a leased facility — appears to have a tenuous future.

“As the Craft Centre goes away, our SSR (plant) will go with it,” Wilbur says. “But we have more uses for that facility as well. We are investigating some additional opportunities that are coming up with our facility.”

Wilbur describes the SSR program as a “great” success, although production never met GM's anticipated volume of 15,000 vehicles annually. ASC says the 23,000 built since fall 2003 exceeded the supplier's goal of 10,000 units per year.

“It was a tremendous learning lab,” Wilbur says of the SSR. “We know now that we can be competitive in these low volumes with this type of protocol, this kind of approach. And our business case works.”

ASC is not alone in pushing its model for a niche-vehicle plant in North America. Competitor Magna Steyr AG & Co. KG already has such a plant in Graz, Austria, and has been advancing with a similar model since 2001 for North America (see WAW — Jan. '06, p.26).

Wilbur says the economic benefits are tremendous for low-volume vehicle programs done by an independent supplier, rather than at an OEM plant, but he says ASC and Magna Steyr are not in a race to have the first niche plant in North America.

“Their approach is a little different,” Wilbur says of Magna Steyr. “When they say niche vehicle, they still mean high volume. In Graz, Austria, they will still do 70,000 to 100,000-unit vehicles.”

ASC, on the other hand, could accommodate up to five auto maker customers and build up to 50,000 vehicles annually.

“We're not geared for high volume,” he says. “Quite frankly, high volume from a Magna plant feels like another mouth to feed for an auto maker. So I don't necessarily buy into that model. But in low volumes, I'm all over it.”

Among the concepts ASC displayed at the Detroit show: