Ford Offered Tax Incentive to Bring AV Factory to Dallas

The city of Dallas has offered Ford an incentive package should it choose to build a proposed autonomous vehicle (AV) factory near the city.

City councilors unanimously approved an economic development agreement with Ford in a bid to attract the automaker to the city, since Ford has narrowed its search for an AV factory to Dallas or two sites in California.

Ford is already launching autonomous ride-sharing services in Austin and Miami in partnership with Lyft and Argo AI.

In the proposed deal, Dallas would provide Ford with “a five-year abatement of the added value to business personal property in an amount equal to the city’s taxes assessed on 50% of the value of Ford’s new tangible business personal property investment” at the proposed AV factory.

Terms of the deal would include Ford gaining $3 million in tax breaks and a $250,000 economic development grant, in return for investments of at least $160 million in capital expenditures by December 2027 with at least 250 full-time jobs created.

Of those jobs, 100 must be grant eligible, with 80% of those to be paid a minimum salary of $74,000. The remaining 20% of grant-eligible jobs would be paid a minimum salary of $100,000.

About 150 other jobs would have to be paid a minimum salary equal to or greater than the current living wage in Dallas, which is currently $15 per hour. That wage figure does not include overtime, bonuses or benefits, the resolution states.

A minimum of 50% of those jobs must be Dallas residents, with Ford instructed to “make best efforts to ensure that at least half of the grant eligible jobs are filled by Dallas residents.”

This article first appeared in IoT World Today’s sister publication AI Business.