Our Experience
EV Manufacturing
This confidential project involved the development of a large-scale electric vehicle manufacturing facility in the United States, with a total installed cost in excess of $5 billion. The facility required an accelerated delivery schedule, placing significant demands on the procurement and contracting strategy from the earliest stages of the project.
We were engaged to help our client develop a robust Scope of Work for a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR), design the commercial mechanism, and work with the Owner's legal counsel to integrate this model into the contract.
The project was given the challenge to build the asset on an accelerated schedule without a significant impact on overall cost. The decision was made to procure a CMAR early in the project lifecycle, with limited design maturity and — as a consequence — with the risk of unknown design and construction risks materializing.
Our client wanted to develop a robust scope of work that could help mitigate these risks and provide commercial mechanisms to resolve their materialization without resorting to adversarial relationships and claims.
Drawing on our experience and expertise on megaprojects, we developed a scope of work structured as an output specification — focusing on the overall requirements for the CMAR and deliberately avoiding being prescriptive with means and methods. This gave the CMAR the flexibility to optimize their approach while keeping accountability firmly tied to outcomes.
The commercial model we developed sought to reimburse the CMAR for costs related to the lack of definition in the scope of work, while focusing the compensation mechanism on activities that mitigated risks and contributed to progressing the schedule efficiently. The result was a contract structure that anticipated potential risks in a fair and equitable manner — reducing the likelihood of claims and keeping the project relationship collaborative throughout delivery.