Ford just made another big announcement, with the news that it has partnered with SK Innovation to invest $11.4 billion for new plants dedicated to electric vehicles. To break it down, Ford is investing $6.95 billion and SK Innovation is investing the remaining $4.45 billion. Ford is quick to point out that this is its largest single manufacturing investment in its 118-year history.
That large investment will be spent to build two new facilities. The first is called Blue Oval City, which will be located in Stanton, Tennessee. The $5.6 billion dollar campus will create 6,000 new jobs and it will build the electric F-Series vehicles. It will also include a battery plant. Ford says that once its new Tennessee assembly plant is fully operational, it will designed to be carbon neutral with zero waste to landfill.
The second new plant is a battery manufacturing complex in central Kentucky is a 1,500 acre facility called BlueOvalSK Battery Park. The $5.8 billion complex will create 5,000 new jobs with two battery plants on site to build batteries for the next-generation electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
“This is a transformative moment where Ford will lead America’s transition to electric vehicles and usher in a new era of clean, carbon-neutral manufacturing,” said Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford. “With this investment and a spirit of innovation, we can achieve goals once thought mutually exclusive – protect our planet, build great electric vehicles Americans will love and contribute to our nation’s prosperity.”
The investment is needed, since Ford expects that 40 percent of its US sales will be electric vehicles by 2030.
