Pontiac Mobility Summit Spotlights Michigan's EV and Transportation Future — Implications for Macomb County's Auto Workforce

On Sept. 17, Michigan's push to electrify transportation will come to M1 Concourse in Pontiac, where state officials, industry leaders and investors will discuss the technologies and policies that could determine what kind of auto work remains in Sterling Heights. The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity's Office of Future Mobility and Electrification — created by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 as the first office of its kind in the United States — will host the MIX: Mobility Innovation Exchange Summit, bringing together innovators, policymakers and investors to discuss emerging transportation technologies, electrification and mobility solutions shaping Michigan's economic future. Justine Johnson was appointed as Michigan's Chief Mobility Officer in August 2023.

For Sterling Heights and Macomb County, the stakes are not abstract: over 76,000 automotive, engineering and skilled-trades professionals work in Sterling Heights and neighboring Macomb County. About 6,000 hourly workers are employed at Stellantis' Sterling Heights Assembly Plant alone. Yet a June 2026 Michigan automotive workforce needs assessment found that 36 percent of businesses say EVs pose more challenges than opportunities, identifying significant needs in retraining and skills development to address emerging EV-related roles and potential job displacement.

The MIX Summit will feature a full day of programming covering advanced air mobility, maritime innovation, ground and transit mobility, manufacturing and defense applications, and cross-industry innovation. It will include live demonstrations of drones and unmanned ground vehicles, interactive ride-and-drives and hands-on programming. The summit will be co-hosted with the Centrepolis Accelerator Demo Day, showcasing startups and technologies supported by Centrepolis and the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, and will kick off Michigan's Mobility Week.

Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University is offering up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding and technical support to mobility and electrification startups through its Make It in Michigan Mobility Prototyping Grant Program. The 2026 round had a July 12 application deadline, with contracts to be awarded by September 1, 2026, and projects running from October 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. The current funding round includes a $1 million grant from the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, $500,000 from the Michigan Office of Defense and Aerospace Innovation and an additional $500,000 in grants. Since 2024, the program has awarded $2.8 million across 45 projects in dual-use mobility, autonomous systems, electrification and advanced manufacturing technologies based or built in Michigan.

Sterling Heights is already in the middle of the transition. Stellantis operates the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant and a stamping plant, producing the Ram 1500, including the 2027 Ram 1500 REV electric truck. Ford Motor Company operates the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center and the Sterling Axle Plant in Sterling Heights, employing approximately 3,600 workers.

But electrification has not arrived as a simple jobs boom. Stellantis laid off nearly 200 workers — 177 temporary supplemental workers and 14 full-time employees — at the Sterling Heights plant in late 2024 to prepare for electric Ram 1500 production. Following a UAW strike at Sterling Heights that involved 6,800 workers, Stellantis announced 525 additional layoffs at related stamping plants in Sterling and Warren in October 2023. UAW Local 1700 officials scheduled a May 7–8, 2026, strike-authorization vote at Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant over the company's use of outside contractors, but the vote was called off after the union and Stellantis reached an agreement.

There has been local investment beyond the auto plants. AGS Automotive Systems completed a $20 million expansion in Sterling Heights in 2022 to support new bumper manufacturing capabilities for autonomous vehicle-related contracts. Michigan's Office of Future Mobility and Electrification has deployed more than 3,000 public EV chargers and generated 25,000 new mobility jobs statewide.

For Macomb workers looking to secure a place in the transition, training options already exist. Macomb Community College offers an Electric Vehicle Development Technology Certificate and an associate degree in Vehicle Engineering Technician focused on development and testing of EVs, automated vehicles and connected vehicles through its Center for Advanced Automotive Technology. The Vehicle Engineering Technician program was developed with input from Continental, Bosch and GM. The college received a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to establish its Center for Advanced Automotive Technology supporting EV electrification training. Its EV safety training curriculum, developed with Michigan's Talent Action Team, covers high-voltage batteries, regenerative braking, motor types, power management and safety procedures. Macomb Community College is one of five community colleges nationwide offering a Tesla Cohort program, a 12-week intensive training with direct placement at Tesla service centers.

The Michigan EV Jobs Academy had enrolled approximately 800 participants and graduated 327 as of June 2025. In calendar year 2025, more than 1,000 people participated in EV and advanced manufacturing training programs in Michigan, with more than half completing them.

For Sterling Heights, the significance of MIX will not be measured by the demonstrations in Pontiac. It will be measured in whether the investments, startup contracts and training programs tied to Michigan's mobility push translate into durable local work for the people already building the region's vehicles and parts.