Electric Vehicle Company To Open R&D Facility In Milpitas

MILPITAS, CA – SF Motors, a Santa Clara-based electric vehicle company, plans to open a new research and development facility at McCarthy Creekside, an industrial complex under construction in Milpitas.

The company is the first tenant at McCarthy Creekside and will lease 130,000 square feet for R&D and manufacturing of battery, e-powertrain and self-driving technologies, officials said.

The McCarthy Creekside development, adjacent to Interstate 880, is a McCarthy Ranch project and being built in two phases, with phase one to be completed this month. When fully constructed, the 44-acre McCarthy Creekside will consist of six buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet and featuring such amenities as retail businesses, creek trails and biking paths.

McCarthy Creekside offers more than traditional industrial complexes, said Joey McCarthy, a principal at McCarthy Ranch.

“We have high standards for the companies we recruit to McCarthy Creekside, and we know that leading-edge companies like SF Motors have high standards in where they choose to locate,” McCarthy said. “This site will not only satisfy its local R&D needs, but also offer employees adjacent retail and outdoor amenities.”

SF Motors currently has R&D facilities in Santa Clara, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Stuttgart, Germany.

“Adding to our existing R&D labs, this new facility will conduct extensive design validation testing and low-volume manufacturing necessary to ensure smooth transition to mass production of our batteries and electric powertrains, which are key components of our vehicles,” said SF Motors Chief Technology Officer Yifan Tang. “Drawing on our global business model and decades of manufacturing experience, locating this facility near our Silicon Valley headquarters will strategically ensure quality and efficiency as we prepare to bring our intelligent EVs to market.”

SF Motors will add engineering and manufacturing jobs for the Milpitas site when it becomes operational in the fourth quarter of 2018, company officials said. Follow job postings here.

SF Motors last month previewed its first intelligent electric vehicles, battery innovations, electric powertrain systems and “protective autonomy” concepts, and will begin trial production of vehicles this year at its facilities in Mishawaka, Ind., and Chongqing, China, with a target of 200,000 units per year, the company said.

Industrial space available for lease at McCarthy Creekside, on North McCarthy Boulevard, is being handled by Chip Sutherland and Vince Machado of CBRE, with retail space represented by Matt Sweeny and Josh Shumsky of Newmark Cornish & Carey. For more information, follow this link.

For more on SF Motors, click here.

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--Image via McCarthy Creekside