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Ford building mega factories in Tennessee and Kentucky to push shift to EVs

Ford's Blue Oval City complex will be constructed on a nearly 6-square-mile site in west Tennessee and build next-generation electric F-Series pickups and advanced batteries.

 

 

Ford Motor Co. recently announced plans to bring electric vehicles at scale to American customers with two new environmentally and technologically advanced campuses in Tennessee and Kentucky that will produce the next generation of electric F-Series trucks and the batteries to power future electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

Ford and partner SK Innovation will invest a total of $11.4 billion together to create nearly 11,000 new jobs at the Tennessee and Kentucky facilities.

An all-new $5.6 billion mega campus in Stanton, TN, called Blue Oval City, will create approximately 6,000 new jobs and aims to reimagine how vehicles and batteries are manufactured.

Blue Oval City will become a vertically integrated ecosystem for Ford to assemble an expanded lineup of electric F-Series vehicles and will include a battery plant, key suppliers, and recycling. Ford's new Tennessee assembly plant is designed to be carbon neutral with zero waste to landfill once fully operational.

In central Kentucky, Ford plans to build a dedicated battery manufacturing complex with SK Innovation, the $5.8 billion BlueOvalSK Battery Park, creating 5,000 jobs. Twin battery plants on the site are intended to supply Ford's North American assembly plants with locally assembled batteries. BlueOvalSK is the name of the new joint venture formed by Ford and SK Innovation.

The all-new $5.8 billion, 1,500-acre dedicated battery manufacturing complex called BlueOval SK Battery Park aims to create approximately 5,000 new jobs in Glendale, KY.

 

 

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, MI.

Ford's stake in the BlueOvalSK collaboration is $7 billion -- the largest-ever manufacturing investment at one time by any automotive manufacturer in the United States. Part of Ford's more than $30 billion investment in electric vehicles through 2025, it supports the company's longer-term goal to create a sustainable American manufacturing ecosystem, and to accelerate its progress toward achieving carbon neutrality, backed by science-based targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. Overall, Ford expects 40% to 50% of its global vehicle volume to be fully electric by 2030.

All-new Ford Blue Oval City
Reimagining how electric vehicles -- and the batteries that power them -- are designed, manufactured, and recycled, Ford is creating an all-new electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem.

Blue Oval City will be among the largest auto manufacturing campuses in U.S. history. Like the iconic Rouge complex in Michigan did a century earlier, Blue Oval City could usher in a new era for American manufacturing -- at least that's what Ford hopes.

The 3,600-acre campus covering nearly 6 square miles will encompass vehicle assembly, battery production, and a supplier park in a vertically integrated system that delivers cost efficiency while minimizing the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process. The assembly plant will use always-on cloud-connected technologies to drive improvements in quality and productivity. The mega campus is designed to add more sustainability solutions, including the potential to use local renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar, and wind power.

Creating approximately 6,000 jobs, Blue Oval City should be a hive of technical innovation to build next-gen electric F-Series trucks. This growth opportunity will allow Ford to reach new customers with an expanded electric truck lineup.

Bigger assembly plant, smaller environmental impact
Despite its size, the assembly plant at Blue Oval City is designed to have as minimal an impact as possible on the surrounding environment -- and even to generate positive impacts. From the start of production in 2025, Ford's goal is for the assembly plant to be carbon neutral.

Through an on-site wastewater treatment plant, the assembly plant aspires to make zero freshwater withdrawals for assembly processes by incorporating water reuse and recycling systems. Zero-waste-to-landfill processes will capture materials and production scrap at an on-site materials collection center to sort and route materials for recycling or processing either at the plant or at off-site facilities once the plant is operational.

Ford is collaborating with Redwood Materials, a leading battery materials company, to make electric vehicles more sustainable and affordable by localizing the supply chain network, creating recycling options for scrap and end-of-life vehicles, and ramping up lithium-ion recycling. Ford is backing the idea that battery recycling is essential for the success of an electrified future, and the process has the potential to offer significant economic benefits as well as help solve some end-of-life battery recycling issues.

BlueOvalSK Battery Park
Joining the Ford electric manufacturing revolution is a planned $5.8 billion, 1,500-acre BlueOvalSK battery manufacturing campus in Glendale, KY, which is targeted to open in 2025.

Twin co-located plants will be capable of producing up to 43 gigawatt hours each for a total of 86 gigawatt hours annually. Together, these American-made batteries will power next-generation electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

Bringing 5,000 new jobs to Kentucky, BlueOvalSK Battery Park will be centrally located to support Ford's North American assembly plants' footprint.

Technician investments in Texas and the U.S.
Ford 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 transform America's auto technician industry. The investment will go toward job training and career readiness initiatives for the current and next generation of technicians. These programs aim to develop highly skilled technicians and will support Ford's growing portfolio of connected electric vehicles.

Source: Ford Motor Co.

Published October 2021

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