Monday, January 18, 2010

From Large to Small

Elkhart Indiana, for reasons that I cannot gather, has always been the capital of the RV industry. That Detroit is the capital of the auto industry is less of a mystery, but Elkhart is a pretty small town - not the sort of place in which you would imagine half the RV's in this country are made.

Having done some work here a few years back for one of the RV manufacturers, I've paid far more attention to the industry than I normally would. (My idea of camping is to "get away from it all", not "take it all with me", but to each his own.)They've been hit hard, what with the price of gas hitting record levels in 2008 and the general malaise in the economy, and so it has been trying times for Elkhart.

It is rather ironic that Think, a Norwegian maker of electric cars is looking to expand into an Elkhart Indiana facility. Going from one of the largest vehicles to one of the smallest. It certainly seems like a good move for both the company (the reasons are outlined in the link) and for Elkhart, as diversity is never a bad thing. (I'm not going to forcase the demise of the RV industry, as that will depend strongly on the price of oil, and if I could forecast that, I would be blogging in my pajamas from a cabana in St. Kitts. Any reader who thinks they can predict the price of oil is encouraged to invest their money appropriately and see how well they really can predict it.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a great resource!