Azure is the kind of company that economic-development leaders dream of: a transplant to Detroit. Publicly-owned Azure, which builds drive trains for electric vehicles, moved its headquarters from Canada to Oak Park, a suburb on Detroit's northern border.
In early 2011 the company will roll out an electric version of Ford's Transit Connect van in the U.S. and later in Europe. "We moved because Detroit has the world's best technical base," says CEO Harrison. "What everyone underestimates is that the whiz-bang high technologies can't exist without the practical everyday capabilities. Electric propulsion is critical to our business, but it doesn't matter unless you know how to calibrate the airbags, which they know how to do here,'' he says.
Azure is small but growing fast, with fiscal 2009 revenues of $9.4 million, up 23% over the previous year.
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