Japanese automotive giant Toyota has signed a new US$3.5m five-year lease at the American Center for Mobility (ACM) in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which gives it exclusive use of all-new labs and office workspaces in a new campus construction on-site. It has also paid an additional US$2.5m to utilize ACM’s testing resources. The OEM was a founding sponsor of ACM in 2017, contributing US$5m to the facility.
“Toyota will further capitalize on ACM’s unique combination of world-class testing facilities and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) – including customizable low-speed urban environments and a high-speed highway loop – to accelerate our technology development. Since ACM is so close to our North American R&D headquarters in Ann Arbor, we’ll continue to do our breakthrough work in mobility right here in Michigan,” said Monte Kaehr, group vice president of Toyota Motor North America’s advanced mobility research and development.
“As a founding investor and ACM industry advisory board member, Toyota has played a key role in the ongoing growth of ACM as a shared-resource for the automotive and mobility industry,” commented Reuben Sarkar, president and CEO at the American Center for Mobility. “The expansion of Toyota’s on-site footprint reflects the continued demand for shared infrastructure as part of a neutral platform for companies to use for the accelerated development of mobility technologies, standards and workforce training, and punctuates the permanency of the ACM smart mobility test center and innovation campus, as well as the state of Michigan, as the epicenter for global automotive and mobility technology development.”