Ford, SK Innovation To Invest $11.4 Bln In EV And Battery Plants; Create About 11,000 US Jobs

Ford and its partner South Korea’s SK Innovation plan to build three major electric-vehicle battery factories and an auto assembly plant in U.S. by 2025. They plan to invest $11.4 billion and create about 11,000 new jobs at the Tennessee and Kentucky mega-sites.

The news comes amid strong demand for the all-new Ford F-150 Lightning truck, E-Transit and Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles, and is on top of Ford’s recent announcement to expand production capacity and add jobs at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford expects 40 to 50 percent of its global vehicle volume to be fully electric by 2030.

Ford said its Tennessee factory – called Blue Oval City – will cover a 6-square-mile area and build next-generation electric pickup trucks and advanced batteries from 2025. The new $5.6 billion mega campus in Stanton, Tennessee will create about 6,000 new jobs.

In central Kentucky, Ford plans to build a battery manufacturing complex in a joint venture with SK Innovation. The $5.8 billion BlueOvalSK Battery Park will create 5,000 jobs. The twin battery plants on the site are intended to supply Ford’s North American assembly plants with locally assembled batteries for powering next-generation electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

Ford said it is investing $90 million in Texas alone as part of a $525 million total investment across the U.S. during the next five years to train skilled technicians to service connected, electric zero-emission vehicles.

Ford’s $7 billion investment is the largest ever manufacturing investment at one time by any automotive manufacturer in the U.S. and is part of Ford’s more-than-$30 billion investment in electric vehicles through 2025.

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