Ford and South Korean battery producer SK Innovation will spend a mixed $11.4 billion to construct a number of new factories within the Tennessee and Kentucky centered on the event and manufacturing of electrical autos and the batteries that energy them.
The brand new services symbolize the primary new crops constructed by Ford, utterly from scratch, in over 50 years. The Tennessee plant might be a “mega campus” that homes a vehicle-production facility for Ford’s F-series pickup vehicles and a battery meeting division, whereas the dual factories in Kentucky will manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
The services gained’t come on-line till 2025, however Ford CEO Jim Farley says the funding alerts the seriousness with which the corporate is taking its dedication to EVs. The brand new campus in Stanton, Tennessee, for instance, will cowl 9 sq. miles and represents the biggest facility ever constructed within the firm’s 118-year historical past, Farley stated.
“It is a new Ford,” Farley instructed The Verge. “That is present, not inform time.”
Ford, like the remainder of the auto business, is scrambling to shift its consideration to EVs, at the same time as they solely symbolize a small fraction of autos bought yearly. The announcement comes as Congress is debating whether or not to approve an infrastructure deal that will fund the development of lots of of 1000’s of new charging stations, in addition to new client incentives for EV gross sales. It additionally comes because the auto business grapples with new proposals banning the sale of fuel automobiles in overseas markets and a few US states like California.
Farley made the analogy that electrical automobiles at the moment are at the same place as smartphones in 2007. “This story … will not be about propulsion,” Farley stated. “This story is about digital autos with embedded programs, and a buyer expertise led via software program that will get higher day-after-day, and adjustments the definition of a automotive from one thing that will get you from level A to level B, to one thing that allows your full life.”
The brand new services symbolize a shift in Ford’s strategy to EV manufacturing. It’s a extra financially dangerous transfer with probably profitable rewards sooner or later if the corporate can efficiently complement manufacturing from its personal suppliers.
Ford at present sources its batteries from SK Innovation, which not too long ago misplaced a commerce secret dispute with rival LG Chem that would hinder its imports to the US. (The businesses not too long ago reached an settlement that would avert a attainable import ban.) By making its personal batteries within the US, Ford can keep away from a number of the conflicts that come up from sourcing batteries abroad.
