The General Manager of Ingeteam, Inc., the Milwaukee company President Joe Biden visited Tuesday, says he hopes the firm will be selling electric vehicle charging stations by the end of the year.
A few minutes after Biden finished speaking. WUWM caught up with Ingeteam General Manager and Vice-President Mark O'Bradovich.
He was still feeling very upbeat about the President of the United States showing up and saying nice things about Ingeteam.
"Oh, it was unbelievable. For President Biden to be here, in our factory here — it's great," O'Bradovich says.
Biden had just praised the Spain-based company for about a 12-year-record of making solar and wind energy components at the Menomonee Valley site. Biden also mentioned the company's plans to make faster charging stations for electric vehicles.
O'Bradovich says Ingeteam is nearly ready to start manufacturing the stations. It's currently in the process of selecting parts suppliers according, O'Bradovich emphasizes, to requirements of the federal government's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (NEVI.)
"So, we have to find U.S. suppliers. Our design group, and we've made 40,000 in Europe already. So, we have a successful product. We just need to integrate it now, into the U.S. In December, we'll build out first five units, and then next year, will be mass production," he says.
O'Bradovich praises the Inflation Reduction Act that Wisconsin Democrats in Congress supported and Biden signed a year ago.
"So this legislation, it's not giving us any (tax) credits or anything. But it's a requirement that they must be built here, and we can compete with that. It's difficult to compete if everyone's making things in China, and we're trying to build them here. So this bill where everyone's on an even footing, and every one is built in America, we can beat all of our competitors when it's like that," he says.
O'Bradovich says with EV charger production, Ingeteam hopes to almost double its Milwaukee workforce from the current 100.
Biden had more jobs news for southeastern Wisconsin yesterday, highlighting that German conglomerate Siemens says it will start building solar power inverters at the Sanmina Corporation site in Pleasant Prairie.
"Sunlight shines down and the inverter turns it into electricity. And they're going to build them right outside of Kenosha. Don't tell me Americans can't innovate! Don't tell me that! Since I took office, I've seen more than $3 billion in private investment, in clean energy manufacturing all across Wisconsin. That's Bidenomics. That's investing in America," Biden says.
State Republicans have a different take on what the White House calls Bidenomics, or Biden's economic policies.
Northern Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany focused on inflation, as he spoke to reporters on a conference call —noting the recent 0.40 or 0.50 cent per gallon spike in gasoline prices.
"We hit $3.80 a gallon for gas in Northern Wisconsin. Any of you on this call, if you come on up north, and we sure hope you will, you're gonna pay more to be able to get up here, and that's because of Bidenomics," Tiffany says.
But also, on the Republicans' call, they didn't respond to WUWM's request for comment on the latest indictments in Georgia against Former President Donald Trump, who seems to be leading the GOP presidential field for next year.
On the call was now-GOP State Chair Brian Schimming, mentioned in the new indictments of Trump. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Schimming did not acknowledge multiple requests on Tuesday's call about being referenced in the Georgia documents.
Most or all (no word yet on Trump) of the GOP presidential candidates are due in Milwaukee on August 23 for a Republican National Committee debate.
