Incentives May Bring Car Plant to Southland

A Santa Monica start-up that proposes to build cars on demand for individual consumers, much as Dell Computer Corp. operates, said Tuesday that it has been offered a $53-million package of private and government incentives to build an auto assembly plant in San Bernardino.

No decision has been made on the offer, but William S. Li, a former Ford Motor Co. executive and co-founder of Build-To-Order Inc., said the firm’s executives “are working hard to make California a viable, logical place for us to be.”

The offer consists of $23 million in tax incentives from the state and a $30-million construction financing deal from Ross Perot Jr.’s commercial development firm Hillwood Development Corp., which is proposing a 2,000-acre business park on the site of the former Norton Air Force Base.

Li, BTO’s president and chief executive, said the 2-year-old company has acquired rights to the Auburn automobile brand name and intends to launch two Auburn vehicles--a sport sedan and a station wagon--by early 2005.

The company’s business plan calls for the vehicles to be built on order, so there is no costly inventory.

The sedan and wagon would use common components, or platforms--supplied by automobile parts vendors--to minimize costs.

Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. jointly operate an auto manufacturing plant in Northern California, but the last major assembly factory in Southern California was shuttered by GM in 1992.

“A lot of people in the auto industry view California as hostile to the business,” Li said. “These offers show that’s not the case.”

He said the company still is negotiating with the state over job-training support.

BTO has spent about $40 million on development of its new automobiles, Li said. The company’s equity partners include AK Steel Corp., Deloitte Consulting, British race car manufacturer TWR Group Ltd. and SHR Perceptual Management, a brand-development firm.