A monumental announcement by Ford CEO Jim Farley sees the carmaker investing $11.4 billion into electrified mobility. The investment will create roughly 11,000 new jobs and is by far the largest commitment to EV tech development and manufacturing by any automaker in the US.
The release details plans for several new initiatives by Ford. A 6-square-mile campus in Tennessee will be built as a facility to manufacture the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning and batteries to be used in EV assembly. This complex is called Blue Oval City. Another facility in Kentucky will also be created as BlueOvalSK Battery Park, housing two battery plants that will power Ford and Lincoln EVs.
The 11,000 newly created jobs will be split among the two campuses with 6,000 to be based at the Stanton, Tennessee facility and 5,000 positions in Glendale, Kentucky. It’s expected to take around four years to get the plants up and running, estimating the ribbon-cutting to be in 2025.
“This is our moment – our biggest investment ever – to help build a better future for America,” said Jim Farley, Ford president, and CEO. “We are moving now to deliver breakthrough electric vehicles for the many rather than the few. It’s about creating good jobs that support American families, an ultra-efficient, carbon-neutral manufacturing system, and a growing business that delivers value for communities, dealers, and shareholders.”
In addition to Blue Oval City and BlueOvalSK Battery Park, Ford is investing another $525 million on US soil to “train skilled technicians to service, connected electric zero-emission vehicles”. Altogether, Ford has now committed more than $30 billion to electrification through 2025.
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Striving for sustainability
Not only does the $11.4 billion put an emphatic stamp of approval on the viability of electric vehicles going forward, but Ford is committing to a more sustainable future with manufacturing practices as well as the vehicles they produce. Blue Oval City is to be a carbon-neutral facility with an on-site wastewater treatment plant and is planned to be a zero-waste-to-landfill ‘city’. Ford is also partnering with Redwood Materials to establish “recycling options for scrap and end-of-life vehicles, and ramping up lithium-ion recycling”.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said, “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. 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.”
In speaking with Tom Costello on “NBC Nightly News” Monday, Ford’s Executive Chair Bill Ford said, “If my great-grandfather saw our industry five years ago, it would be very recognizable to him, it hadn’t changed a lot. There were a lot of evolutions, but no revolutions. Now we’re on the cusp of a revolution. It’s not just the electrification, although that’s a huge piece of it.”
With the announcement, Ford sets itself up as a car company that could conceivably achieve its stated goal of making 40% to 50% of its global sales volume all-electric by 2030.
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