Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation are planning to develop twin battery manufacturing plants in Kentucky which will be known as BlueOvalSK Battery Park. This battery manufacturing facility will commence production of advanced lithium-ion batteries sometime in 2025 and is expected to create around 5,000 jobs within the area.
BlueOvalSK Battery Park will be developed on 1,551-acre megasite land in Glendale, Kentucky with access to Interstate 65 and CSX railroad tracks. The batteries produced from these twin battery plants will be used to power the new line of Ford and Lincoln vehicles proposed to be introduced into the market later in this decade.
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In addition to the development of BlueOvalSK Battery Park, the Michigan-based Ford Motor Co. will also be collaborating with the South Korea- based SK Innovation to build a truck assembly plant called Blue Oval city in Tennessee. The entire investment is worth a total of $11.4 billion, which includes $7 billion from Ford and about $4.4 billion coming from its joint venture partner SK Innovation.
The truck assembly plant in Tennessee named Blue Oval city, will be larger than BlueOvalSK Battery Park. This assembly plant will be developed into a mega campus, on 3,600 acres of land near Stanton. It will also consist of a vehicle assembly plant, battery production park, and a supplier park; all of which will be designed as a unified system capable of reducing the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process, at an efficient and cost-effective scale. The Tennessee facility is expected to create around 6,000 jobs and according to Ford’s chief operating officer, Lisa Drake, the groundbreaking will be later this year, with production targeted to commence in 2025.
According to Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, the company expects that the new BlueOvalSK Battery Park and Blue Oval plants combined will produce up to twice as much per year, as all the batteries made for automotive use in the U.S., which is at 129 gigawatts. Farley also pointed out that these developments were important strategic bets to insource key components. He also explained that the company has taken necessary measures to position itself as a strong competitor in the all-electric arena. Farley added, “This announcement puts us ahead. We already have sold out of our first generation of electric vehicles and we’re dealing with that capacity issue now.”
