Wil Cashen, the Mishawaka-born chief executive of a blossoming electric car company, left his new home in California, and on May 14, announced a plan at a Wakarusa press conference.

As then-Gov. Mitch Daniels stood at his side, he told the crowd that his company, Electric Motors Corp., or EMC, would make electric trucks and recreational vehicles, creating 1,600 jobs by 2012.

In the depths of the recession, in a place where unemployment hovered around 20 percent, that was a burst of hope amid the blackness of mounting job losses.

For Neufeldt, who gained a measure of fame after introducing President Barack Obama when he spoke at Concord High School Feb. 9, 2009, it was even more. Cashen offered the Wakarusa man a job as EMC’s spokesman. Neufeldt, a 32-year veteran of the recently shuttered Monaco Coach Corp. RV maker, accepted.

Cashen said he’d “make me a millionaire,” Neufeldt remembered.

As part of his tasks, he’d travel to Washington, D.C., promoting the green energy along the way, and meet with Obama to bolster the case for electric cars.

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