Ford and SK Innovation announced plans on September 27, 2021 to invest $11.4 billion in electric-vehicle and battery manufacturing in Tennessee and Kentucky, with nearly 11,000 new jobs planned across the two states. Ford targeted production for 2025. For the communities and suppliers involved, the proposal reaches beyond a new truck factory: it joins vehicle assembly, battery making and a developing effort to return used battery materials to production. [S1][S4]
The $5.6 billion Tennessee project, BlueOval City in Stanton, would put electric F-Series truck assembly, battery production and a supplier park on a 3,600-acre campus. Ford projected approximately 6,000 jobs there and included recycling in its description of the site. Ford says the integrated layout would improve cost efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing; the announcement offers design goals rather than operating results. [S1]
Kentucky would supply batteries to Ford’s North American assembly plants. The planned $5.8 billion BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale comprised two plants and 5,000 projected jobs. Ford put their combined annual capacity at 86 gigawatt-hours of batteries. Investment in the Tennessee and Kentucky battery plants would run through BlueOval SK, a proposed Ford–SK Innovation joint venture still subject to definitive agreements, regulatory approvals and other conditions. [S1]
The employment announcement also included a different kind of work. Ford set out a $525 million U.S. investment over five years in job training and career readiness for technicians, including $90 million in Texas. That program concerns servicing connected and electric vehicles. That national program is separate from the manufacturing job projections; the release does not allocate its budget to training workers at the new campuses. [S1]
The materials plan has an earlier starting point. In a September 22 announcement, Redwood Materials said it would work with Ford on a domestic battery-recycling loop. Its proposed inputs included both production scrap and batteries at the end of their useful lives, with recovered materials returning to the battery supply chain. Redwood presented lower costs and a smaller environmental footprint as intended benefits, not measured results for the Ford plants. [S4]
Redwood said Ford had invested $50 million in the company to help expand its manufacturing footprint. Materials supply was still under discussion. Redwood described discussions about how it could supply Ford’s American battery facilities, rather than announcing contracted volumes for the new campuses. Its statement gave no committed delivery quantities or schedule for those materials. [S4]
Source documents
- Ford to Lead America’s EV Shift with Mega Campus in Tennessee, Twin Battery Plants in Kentuckyhttps://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2021/ford-to-lead-americas-shift-to-electric-vehicles
- Redwood Materials and Ford Motor Company announce strategic relationshiphttps://www.redwoodmaterials.com/news/redwood-materials-and-ford-motor-company-announce-strategic-relationship/