by John Engel: Ford Motor Company announced plans on Tuesday for a massive electric vehicle manufacturing campus in Tennessee…
as well as two additional battery facilities in Kentucky, in what the company called the largest investment in the U.S. electric vehicle market at one time by an automaker.
A $5.6 billion mega campus in Stanton, Tennessee — dubbed Blue Oval City — will build next-generation electric F-Series pickups and advanced batteries through a partnership with SK Innovation. The campus is designed to be carbon neutral with zero waste to landfill once fully operational.
The BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Central Kentucky will feature two battery plants, representing an investment of $5.8 billion. The site will supply Ford’s North American assembly plants with batteries for next-generation 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.”
We’re building our first mega campus in more than a generation. The all-new mega campus just outside of Memphis, called Blue Oval City, aspires to have 100% renewable energy, zero waste to landfill, and reusing every drop of water, to ensure our planet is in it for the long haul. pic.twitter.com/O97N9X3ek2
— Ford Motor Company (@Ford) September 27, 2021
Blue Oval City and the twin BlueOvalSK battery facilities are expected to begin commercial production in 2025, creating approximately 11,000 jobs.
Ford expects electric vehicles to represent 40-50% of its global vehicle volume by 2030. President Biden, meanwhile, set a goal of electric vehicles making up 50% of U.S. car sales by 2030.
