Ford Motor Company and its Korean battery partner SK Innovation, will invest $11.4 billion to build an electric F-150 assembly plant and three battery plants in the United States, accelerating the U.S. automaker’s push into electric vehicles.
The factories, to be built on sites in Kentucky and Tennessee, will make batteries for the next generation of Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles that will be produced in North America.
This dramatic investment in the future of EV technology will create about 10,800 jobs and shift the automaker’s future manufacturing footprint toward the South. This is the largest single manufacturing investment the 118-year-old company has ever made, according to PBS.org.
Ford North American Chief Operating Officer Lisa Drake told Reuters in an interview that the Tennessee assembly and battery complex will be about three times the size of Ford’s sprawling, century-old Rouge manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Michigan.
“For us, this is a very transformative point where we are putting our capital in place now in a very big way to lead the transition to EVs,” Drake said.
The No.2 U.S. carmaker’s portion of the investment is $7 billion, with SK covering the rest. The companies will invest $5.8 billion in Kentucky, and $5.6 billion in Tennessee.
The South Korean battery maker, which supplies electric car batteries to Ford Motor and Hyundai Motor Co, among others, has battery production sites in the United States, Hungary, China, and South Korea.
Ford, which plans to launch the electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck next spring, has moved more aggressively to roll out its EV strategy under Jim Farley, who took over as chief executive last October. Farley says Ford intends to lead the world in electric vehicles.
