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Wednesday, June 1,2022
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 7A
Chamber holds ribbon cutting for State Farm office
Erica Jones Dawson County News
On May 25, the Dawson County Chamber of Commerce held an official rib
bon cutting for State Farm Insurance AgentTreyThomas.
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
On Wednesday May
25, the Dawson County
Chamber of Commerce
held an official ribbon
cutting for State Farm
Insurance Agent Trey
Thomas.
In a short ceremony
preceding the ribbon cut
ting, Mandy Power, presi
dent and CEO of the
chamber, welcomed
Thomas and his business
to downtown Dawsonville
and to the community.
“We love coming to
celebrate businesses;
Trey has just jumped
right in there with his
State Farm business
here,” Power said. “Being
downtown is such a great
place for you to be; I feel
like this building was
made for State Farm.
We’re so excited to have
such a great community
partner.”
Thomas addressed the
community members and
business leaders in atten
dance at the ribbon cut
ting, thanking them for
coming out to help cele
brate his business.
“I’ve been with State
Farm for 7 years but have
worked toward opening
an office here in down
town Dawsonville for
pretty much that whole
time,” Thomas said.
‘We’re super excited to
help the community;
State Farm is all about
helping people manage
the risk of everyday life,
recover from the unex
pected and realize their
dreams; and having a job
where I get to own my
own business and have
the backing of a great
company — I can’t think
of a better plan.”
Before cutting the rib
bon, Thomas presented
donations to three local
groups and individuals,
including a local student
who works at the
Dawsonville Pool Room,
local nonprofit K.A.R.E.
for Kids and a represen
tative of Fishing with
Everyday Heroes.
“I’m so thankful for
everything that you’ve
already done in our com
munity and I love to see
the member-to-member
engagement,” Power said
to Thomas following the
donation presentations.
“That’s really what the
chamber is all about is
bringing community
members together and
making the community
which we live in a better
place to be.”
State Farm Insurance
Agent Trey Thomas’
office is located at 3
Highway 9 South, off of
the Dawsonville square.
For more information
about him, his staff and
business, go to https://
www.myagenttrey.com/.
Dawson auto company crafts EV components
Photos submitted to DCN
Ampere EV operations manager Mike White shows off a DeLorean car that
has been converted to run off of electric power.
Lawson Sumner takes the DeLorean for a test
drive around downtown Dawsonville.
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
As he cruised his com-
pany’s steel-gray
DeLorean around the old
Dawson County court
house, Ampere EV Chief
Engineer Lawson Sumner
remarked that five years
ago, he “never could’ve
imagined” working in a
job quite like this.
He and his colleagues
have grown their compa
ny, Ampere EV, with a
vision of providing com
ponents for people to
modify their gas-powered
vehicles into electric ones.
Aerospace engineer and
businessman Matt White
serves as the company’s
CEO. Blakely Fabiani,
who has a background in
software engineering, is
its chief technology offi
cer.
While they each had
relevant credentials before
beginning the business
venture, Sumner said that
they were more so
brought together by their
shared interest in motors-
ports and cars.
“It just so happened that
with the growth of the
electric vehicle space
recently, the company was
built in that direction,”
Sumner added.
White, who is based out
of Florida, met the others
through racing with
friends at Atlanta
Motorsports Park in
Dawson County. He is
also a part owner of
Primal Racing Group,
according to Ampere
EV’s website.
“Matt’s childhood
dream was to race cars
and his passion was to
develop an electric vehi
cle ‘for the people’ which
has led to his involvement
with Ampere EV,” their
website stated.
They started the compa
ny in October 2020 and
began working out of a
two-car garage at AMP.
Ampere EV’s office was
initially based in Atlanta,
but at the beginning of
this year, they moved
their mechanical and
administrative operations
to their space on Ga. 9
South in Dawsonville.
From the start, the com
pany has been privately
funded.
White and Fabiani’s
first attempt at an electric
race car was on a Honda
car that Fabiani was help
ing convert. They did the
work the existing way at
the time, which entailed
countless hours hunting
down the right parts, lots
of Googling, research and
calls to different mechan
ic shops.
“We thought, ‘You
know, we can make this
easier for [other] peo
ple... where they can buy
all the components that
work together out of a
box and give them the
electric car driving experi
ence,”’ Sumner said.
The original idea for the
company was just to pro
vide batteries which peo
ple could use to convert
their vehicles.
“But then, a couple of
months into it, we real
ized we can make a great
battery, but what are they
going to do with it?,”
Fabiani said. “They need
the rest of this stuff.”
After a meeting, the
team decided-it was
“everything or nothing.”
Earlier this month,
Ampere EV opened up
orders for one of its prod
ucts called an electric
junction box. They plan to
open up ordering for their
full plug-and-play or atom
drive powertrain system
in June.
Sumner shared that
there’s a nationwide com
munity of people who
convert cars. This past
November, Ampere EV
attended the Specialty
Equipment Market
Association or SEMA’s
prominent annual trade
show in Las Vegas, where
the co-owners talked to
thousands of people in the
span of a couple days.
A lot of people they
talked to spoke about
wanting to convert their or
their customers’ cars to be
electric but lacking the
skills or knowledge to
pick the right components
for it.
“A lot of people who
want to convert a vehicle
after already buying an
electric car,” Sumner said.
“They really like how
these cars drive after they
spend a lot of time in
them and drive daily.
They start to want their
project car or fun car to
also be electric.”
Since nobody else was
really taking the kind of
approach Ampere EV
wanted to take, that’s what
motivated the company to
press on in their initiative.
While Sumner said
there are companies out
there that help get parts or
do conversions and that
he’s generally interested
in partnering with some of
them, he did call Ampere
EV’s approach and design
“very unique.”
“There are a lot of
entrants into EV, but for
right now, we’re on the
cutting edge,” he added.
“Georgia’s really push
ing big for the automotive
space, and the EV space is
where automotive is
going, so there’s a big
focus on getting those
companies into Georgia.”
Ampere EV’s plug-
and-play electrical conver
sion kit will include bat
teries, motors and other
necessary items. Kit com
ponents can be mounted
in any standard vehicle, be
it an old Mustang or
Chevy pickup truck,
Sumner said.
Because the battery is
split into three modules,
they can be put into a
vehicle’s front, back or
interior spaces, Sumner
said.
Fabiani emphasized
safety as a “big focus” of
their company, pointing to
the cooling system and
user-friendly tablet inter
faces that are a part of
each kit. Each kit also
takes into account touch-
safe connections to avoid
people touching potential
ly injurious voltage.
Batteries not plugged in
and turned on by a con
troller will not output any
voltage, he said.
“We know that some of
our customers may not be
experts in electrical vehi
cles, and that’s okay. We
don’t want them to have to
be,” he said.
Sumner reiterated the
business’s fast progres
sion, with Fabiani adding
their evolution toward pro
viding an entire electric
powertrain system, with
only he and the other co
founders for much of that
expansion.
Ampere EV aspires for
nationwide reach and,
eventually, an internation
al market. Of the 10 elec
tric kits in their inventory,
only one is not spoken for,
and Sumner said they’re
already trying to order
enough to build 25 more.”
They’ll mix everything
they can make, but the
challenge is “making
everything fast enough,”
Fabiani said.
Ampere EV sources
parts from multiple coun
tries since some of the kit
components aren’t made
in the United States.
However, they’ll sell their
products as manufactured
and assembled in the U.S.
with global components,
“kind of like a small auto
manufacturer,” he added.
With how much the
workload has grown,
they’ve hired six more
employees for a total of
nine workers, including
themselves, at the compa
ny. Most of those individ
uals have been hired in
the past two months, such
as the operations manager
and Matt White’s brother,
Mike White.
There’s also multiple
co-op college students.
Before taking on this role,
Sumner himself had pre
viously participated in a
three-year, five-rotation
engineering co-op
through Georgia Tech.
He cited his high opin
ion of professional-level
internships and ties with
his alma mater when talk
ing about Ampere EV’s
interns.
“I know a lot of stu
dents looking for opportu
nities, and the electric
space has a lot of interest
from a lot of students,”
Sumner said. “Companies
are hiring for a lot of EV
positions, so there’s a lot
of enthusiasm in the
space.”
He added that multiple
schools like his alma
mater are now incorporat
ing skills from engineer
ing and other areas into
their curriculums, which
makes a difference.
“Especially for interns,
when you can give them
projects they’re passionate
about, they can produce
some really good results,”
Sumner added, pointing
out that an intern
designed the dashboard
tablet.
Sumner said co-ops
give these students cool
opportunities while help
ing out Ampere EV as
well. He elaborated that in
terms of skills, there’s “a
lot of car knowledge in
the [Dawson] area, and
it’s amazing.”
Dawson native Kenny
Aaron works with
Ampere EV. Previously,
Aaron worked as a car
mechanic for 12 years,
and he likewise met the
co-owners through racing
activities at AMP.
He said he didn’t think
he’d be working with the
company at first and that
it organically happened
over the last year.
After meeting Matt
White and Sumner, Aaron
helped them convert
another car, the
DeLorean, at the AMP
racetrack last August and
September. They liked
Aaron so much that they
talked him into coming to
work for Ampere EV.
Now, the DeLorean
exists as a particularly
neat example of electric
conversion.
“We started with,
‘What’s an awesome car
that would be made better
electric?”’, Sumner said.
“One of the first things
that came to mind was a
DeLorean.”
Even though “Back to
the Future” paints an ide
alistic picture of the car,
the model actually tends
to be slow and unreliable,
particularly when it
comes to the engine.
However, they were
committed to redeeming
the old 1980s car and
showcasing its very iconic
futuristic appearance,
Sumner said.
So now, the car sports
“Ampere EV” on its scis-
sor-style car doors, and
the acceleration is quite a
bit smoother-and quieter-
than before.
He joked that now, peo
ple in Dawsonville “may
see more DeLoreans than
in the rest of the country.”
Dawson County Humane Society
a no kill shelter
Pet Spotlight
706-265-9160
Meet our gentle Esther. This sweet girl can appear shy at
first glance but after siting with her for 10-15 minutes she
comes around for petting and affection. While she isn’t
much for being picked up, she loves to rub and purr all
over potential adopters and would make an excellent little
house cat. Esther is a very dependent kitty and is always
hanging out with someone in our Cat Room.
She would do well in a house with other kitty siblings.
Come meet our quiet girl today.
Esther is just over a year old and weights eight pounds.
Esther
For more information contact the 706-265-9160 | 633 Martin Rd, Dawsonville
Dawson County Humane Society Adjacent to the Rock Creek Sports Complex
Visit our RESALE SHOP & BOUTIQUE
Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. | 54 S. Lumpkin Campground Rd.
All proceeds benefits
the Humane Society
Dawsonville
Veterinary
Hospital
706-265-8381
ANH Collision
Specialists
706-216-0992
103 Industrial Park Road,
Dawsonville
Bradley M. Maple
CPA, PC
706-216-2362
2390 Thompson Rd • Ste 100
Dawsonville
