A local manufacturer that is developing a hybrid transmission will create 70 new jobs now that it has been awarded federal funding for a military project, company officials and U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer said.
Schauer, D-Battle Creek, toured the Limo-Reid Technologies facility in Deerfield on Tuesday and met employees in the wake of President Obama signing the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which includes $1.6 million for the local firm.

The federal dollars will help the company complete development and provide for field-testing of its Ultra Light Weight Transmission for military vehicles.

“The small business are where you create jobs — as you know,” Limo-Reid CEO Bill Carroll told Schauer.

“No one’s ever done this before,” Carroll said of the company’s type of hybrid transmission that runs on a hydraulic system instead of an electric battery.

The company has already expanded from nine employees a year ago to 24, said Sharon O’Brien, chief administrative officer and co-founder.

James O’Brien, her husband and the company’s other co-founder and president, pointed out 13 new cubicles that were just installed to handle the growing workforce.

Next year Limo-Reid plans to fill engineering, design, tool and die and administrative positions, he said. Later the company will hire more manufacturing employees.

Schauer, whose congressional district includes Lenawee County, said the company’s expansion is positive in a number of ways.

“The thing I’m most excited about, first and foremost, is the creation of 70 jobs,” said Schauer, who pushed for the $1.6 million earmark in the defense appropriations bill. “In a community the size of Deerfield, that’s a huge impact.”

Limo-Reid’s work also will improve energy-efficiency and help troops to do their jobs, Schauer said.
James O’Brien said tests have shown the hybrid transmission improves a Humvee’s city mileage from 8 miles per gallon to 23 miles per gallon.

Schauer said that will help U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Imagine when they’re in rough terrain and they’ll have to refuel half as much,” he said. “You are providing an important service to our men and women in harm’s way.”

Limo-Reid was formerly called Hybra-Drive Systems. The company’s facilities are on Carey Street just off West River Street in Deerfield.

It would have to find a site with more space if the 70 jobs are added, O’Brien said. The company would like to stay in the area — hopefully in either Lenawee or Monroe counties and definitely in Michigan, he said.

Limo-Reid makes use of hydraulic hybrid technology rather than electric technology through the use of a device called an accumulator.

“When you get back to Washington, when you talk about hybrids, it’s not just electricity any more,” O’Brien told Schauer.

Vehicles that use hydraulic hybrid transmissions can run on either diesel fuel or gasoline.

Following his visit to Limo-Reid, Schauer worked a bell-ringing shift for the local Salvation Army corps at the Adrian Mall.

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