Ford and SK Innovation to spend $11 billion, create 11,000 jobs on new U.S. EV and battery plants

Source: Michael Wayland · CNBC · | September 27, 2021

Ford and SK Innovation to spend $11 billion, create 11,000 jobs on new U.S. EV and battery plants.

Source: A battery manufacturing complex U.S automaker Ford Motor Co and its South Korean battery partner SK Innovation plan to build in Kentucky, opening in 2025, is seen in an artist’s rendition released September 27, 2021. Ford Motor Co | Handout | via Reuters

DETROIT – Ford Motor and battery supplier SK Innovation plan to invest more than $11.4 billion in new U.S. facilities that will create nearly 11,000 jobs to produce electric vehicles and batteries.

Ford is building twin lithium-ion battery plants in central Kentucky through a joint venture with South Korea-based SK called BlueOvalSK as well as a massive 3,600-acre campus in west Tennessee, the automaker said Monday night. The campus will include another a battery plant built with SK along with a supplier park, recycling center and a new assembly plant for electric F-Series trucks, Ford CEO Jim Farley told CNBC.

The plans are the latest of Ford’s to increase development and production of electric vehicles — including batteries — under Farley, who began leading the automaker a year ago this week. They also bolster President Joe Biden’s call for companies to onshore supply chains amid a global shortage of semiconductor chips that has disrupted several industries, including automotive.

The investment is part of Farley’s “Ford+” turnaround plan to make the automaker’s traditional operations more profitable and better position it for emerging sectors such as autonomous, electric and connected vehicles.

“This is the new Ford,” Farley told CNBC during a phone interview. “It’s time. We are putting shovels in the ground, 11,000 new workers. … It’s an enormous commitment to build these digital products.”