The American Center for Mobility, a 340-acre test facility in Ypsilanti Township, is at the center of a financing fight with Michigan that pits state debt-collection language against supporters’ warnings that new repayment demands could jeopardize the nonprofit’s operations. Michigan is seeking repayment of a $35 million loan, and advocates for the center say the timing comes at a fragile moment for autonomous vehicle development.
Supporters argue the demand threatens the center’s ability to maintain testing and research programs because the required annual payments would strain cash after a recent financial rebound. State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said the loan should be forgiven or repayment should be delayed. “It’s a state investment to help cement the auto industry’s place in Michigan,” Irwin said, adding, “It makes sense to continue that effort.”
ACM said the conflict could hit its finances despite its recent performance. Documents cited by Bridge Michigan show the center built a $1.59 million surplus last year, supporters say that figure would be wiped out by the state’s demand for $1.62 million per year in payments on the loan. The loan went into forbearance last year, according to the report, leaving the center in a temporary relief period that advocates now want extended.
Negotiations over the repayment have been ongoing with the Michigan Economic Development Corp., a quasi-public business development agency that manages state-backed economic development financing. MEDC spokesperson Danielle Emerson said the contract with the state clearly requires repayment. “We’ve proven ourselves,” Paul Krutko, a founder of the center and its treasurer, said the ACM is fulfilling its role as a state hub for vehicle connectivity. Krutko also said ACM was never intended to generate profit, describing it as “a nonprofit, open source environment for the industry to use.”
Auto industry advocates have framed the dispute as part of a larger competition for mobility jobs. Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto, said the conflict comes after years of “peaks and valleys” in federal automotive research funding, and he suggested that uninterrupted momentum matters for technology development. Stevens also sits on an ACM board and said, “Automated and connected vehicle technology is really full steam ahead,” while arguing that U.S. and partner nations need to develop “our own technologies and our own supply chains.” “It’s really, really important for Michigan’s competitiveness,” Stevens said.
Supporters also describe the center’s track record and its national role in testing. ACM offers full testing capabilities among the 10 national proving grounds for self-driving cars designated by the Obama administration in 2016, while other sites have become more limited in scope, Krutko said. He added that the ACM this spring launched a search for a new CEO after Reuben Sarkar left to become CEO of SAE International, a global mobility organization based near Pittsburgh, and Krutko credited Sarkar’s leadership through rapid technology changes and COVID-19-related fallout.
The ACM’s history traces to efforts to replace jobs lost when General Motors closed the Willow Run transmission factory and GM properties were moved into the RACER Trust. Krutko said the test site concept emerged from a push to rebuild after those losses, and he said state involvement included prior forgivable financing. The report says Michigan invested $67 million in the site overall, including forgiveness of an earlier $15 million loan, and that the Michigan Strategic Fund, the public funding arm of MEDC, invested $35 million since 2016 for land purchase and design, construction and operations.
Looking ahead, both Krutko and Emerson said conversations continue about the debt, but neither provided details of negotiation terms. Irwin also pointed to the University of Michigan’s work with Los Alamos National Laboratory as a possible factor in broader state planning, noting that the state awarded U-M $100 million for site development work in December 2024 and that U-M had revisited the ACM campus after backlash over an earlier land selection for its research project.
The broader political and budget backdrop may also shape the dispute. The report says legislation has cut back subsidy funding, with the state budget deal for 2026 calling for about $91 million of cuts to MEDC programs, and it notes continuing lawmakers’ pressure for more cuts. Even as the repayment fight unfolds, Emerson said Michigan is prioritizing mobility initiatives and highlighted federal designations and other local subsidy examples, while Stevens said ACM’s research ecosystem now extends beyond the original autonomous test track into areas such as gas technology, hydrogen fuels, and EV charging interoperability.