Tag: Scout Motors

What will passenger airplanes look like in 2036? Tube-and-wing designs have been the standard shape, with Boeing and Airbus dominating production, but a young California aviation company is pursuing different dimensions.

Its prototype aircraft resembles a flying squirrel at full extension. The body is flatter and blends into the wings, creating a wider cabin for passengers. This jetmaker intends to use a lighter material known as stitch composite that, along with the unique look, promises superior fuel efficiency.

The plane from California-based JetZero is called the Z4, and if it achieves its sky-high ambitions, both commercial air travel and the North Carolina Piedmont will have changed.

In June, JetZero announced a new $4.7 billion, 14,560-worker factory at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro. It is North Carolina’s largest new job-creation commitment of the year — or of any recent year.

The state landed a robust number of major jobs plans in 2025. Last year’s top hiring project pledged to create 1,000 jobs; since June, North Carolina has backed five economic developments with four-digit hiring projection. And JetZero soars above them all.

Now for a dose of reality: most major jobs projects North Carolina has backed with economic incentives never reach their hiring targets. Since 2007, the state has awarded more than $5 billion in economic incentives through its job development investment grant program, yet has only disbursed around $227.3 million. Though many JDIG projects remain active, this award-to-disbursement rate is less than 5%.

One need not look farther than last year’s biggest jobs headline, a promised 1,000-worker factory in Edgecombe County from the sodium-ion battery maker Natron Energy. The company soon faced financial issues and went out of business this September. And the top project of 2022, a Chatham County vehicle factory from the electric carmaker VinFast, has not gotten off the ground nearly four years later.

But the holidays are a time for hope, not skepticism. And while no plane manufacturer can know what the industry will look like in a decade, JetZero does have key partnerships and momentum. Here’s a glass-half-full look at North Carolina’s top five job creation projects of 2025.

JetZero: 14,560 jobs

Airbus and Boeing presently make more than 90% of commercial aircraft. It is this duopoly JetZero looks to end.

“Not only will this plane be 50% more fuel efficient,” JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary said when announcing the Greensboro factory in June. “It’s going to deliver a better passenger experience than you’ve ever had before on any other plane.”

Its North Carolina jobs are expected to pay an average salary of at least $89,340. While the state’s main incentive involves no upfront money, the North Carolina General Assembly did allocate $450 million to prepare the airport site, including dollars for site construction and surrounding infrastructure.

JetZero was founded in 2020 with the goal of bringing blended-wing shaped aircraft to the masses. Three years later, the U.S. Air Force awarded the company a $235 million contract to build a full-scale demonstrator jet, which is expected to fly in 2027. JetZero has partnered with Delta Air Lines. In March, JetZero signed components deals with RTX subsidiaries Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace to supply this demonstrator.

When announcing its North Carolina factory, the company said it expected to start construction in Greensboro during the first half of 2026, with customers getting jets in the beginning of next decade.

Scout Motors: 1,200 jobs

U.S. driver demand for electric vehicles has lagged once-lofty projections, even before President Donald Trump retook office and helped end the federal EV tax credit. And many in recent years have wondered about the fate of traditional corporate office space in a post-pandemic world.

One company aims to buck both trends. Scout Motors, an American subsidiary of German automaker Volkswagen, picked Charlotte for its new headquarters with a potential $207 million investment and substantial jobs target. Workers are expected to be hired over a five-year period starting in 2026, at an average salary of $172,878 (the state does not announce median salaries).

Volkswagen aims to revive Scout Motors, which was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, as an electric vehicle brand. The company is currently building a manufacturing plant in South Carolina.

North Carolina still doesn’t have its long-sought major car factory, but between the Scout Motors HQ and the new Toyota battery plant, the state is bolstering its automotive reputation.

Jabil: 1,181 jobs

No company on this list has been hotter on Wall Street than Jabil.

In late June, North Carolina awarded the manufacturing supply chain firm incentives to expand into Rowan County, near Salisbury, about halfway between Charlotte and Winston-Salem. A member of the Fortune 500, Jabil already has around 1,000 workers in the state across three other facilities — including one in Mebane. Its fourth location is expected to more than double its North Carolina headcount.

The Florida company’s stock has done very well, up 65% in 2025 and more than 445% over the past five years. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence have fueled this rise, and Jabil said its Rowan County move is part of a $500 million investment to grow these services in the Southeast.

Vulcan Elements: 1,000 jobs

Vulcan Elements began this year as a lesser-known startup, but the two-year-old North Carolina company with a 31-year-old CEO is now a big player in a reemerging U.S. sector that is getting more attention and dollars. Vulcan aims to break Chinese supply chain dominance of rare earth magnets, which are critical in an extensive range of commercial and military products.

“We’re rebuilding this muscle in this industry here in the United States,” Maslin told The News & Observer this year.

On the last day of March, Vulcan opened its first small manufacturing site at its headquarters in Research Triangle Park. Then in August, the company raised $65 million. Then in November, it continued its rapid rise with its two biggest news headlines yet.

First, Vulcan received more than $1 billion from the U.S. government and private investors under an agreement to finance its first large-scale factory. This deal gives the federal government equity in Vulcan, with the U.S. Department of Commerce getting a $50 million stake and the Department of Defense getting “warrants” — the ability to buy Vulcan shares in the future.

On Nov. 18, Vulcan announced it would build this inaugural commercial plant in Benson, a town of 4,500 near the Johnston-Harnett county line. The jobs are to pay an average minimum salary of $81,932, per the state’s incentive agreement.

Maslin estimated his company will have 50 employees by year’s end, with much more hiring to come.

Aspida: 1,000 jobs

Another young company with substantial growth projections in North Carolina is Aspida. In November, the Durham financial services company committed to hire 1,000 new workers at a new local office by 2032, multiplying the current workforce of this life insurance and annuities provider.

Aspida was founded in 2019 as a subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based global investment firm Ares Management and has around 200 employees at its current office on Englert Drive in south Durham. The company declined media interviews at the time of its incentive award, but Aspida CEO Lou Hensley credited his firm’s “innovative technology platform” for driving growth in an interview with The Triangle Business Journal, which named Aspida the area’s fastest-growing private company.

Hensley estimated Aspida will add 50 workers over the next year. Though less finance-centric than Charlotte, the Triangle is home to several significant financial services sites, with Fidelity Investments today being the largest employer in Research Triangle Park.