Ford said on Monday it now expects to have 40 percent to 50
percent of its global vehicle volume to be all-electric by 2030, up from its
prior forecast of 40 percent.
The companies intend to create nearly 11,000 jobs by opening
assembly and battery plants in Stanton, Tennessee, and two additional battery
factories in Glendale, Kentucky, as part of Ford's previously announced plan to
spend more than $30 billion through 2030 on electrification, Ford said. Plants
on both sites will open in 2025.
Monday's announcement is the single largest manufacturing
investment in Ford's 118-year history.
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, Ford North American Chief Operating Officer Lisa
Drake told Reuters in an interview. She emphasised there will be room to expand
on that site.
"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 US 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 among others, has battery production
sites in the United States, Hungary, China, and South Korea.
With its three additional battery factories and two battery
plants in Georgia, SK Innovation is set to secure an annual capacity of about
150GWh of batteries in the United States.
SK Innovation said it expects to exceed the goal of securing
an annual global production capacity of 200GWh of batteries by 2025. Its
current capacity stands at 40GWh.
Shares of SK Innovation rose as much as 3.6 percent to hit a
near two-week high of 260,500 in morning
trade, versus the broader market KOSPI's 0.8 percent fall. Ford closed up 2.8
percent on Monday.
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.
Earlier this month, Ford doubled planned production capacity in Dearborn,
Michigan, for the F-150 Lightning to 80,000 annually due to strong pre-launch
demand for the electric pickup.
Ford and other automakers are pushing hard to prepare for
the rollout of EVs as countries and regions such as China and Europe seek
greater reduction of vehicle emissions.
The planned lithium-ion battery plants build on a memorandum
of understanding announced by Ford and SK in May. The battery plants will be
jointly owned with SK and have a combined annual capacity of 129 GWh of
batteries, which could power about 2.2 million EVs when fully operational, more
than double the level outlined in May, Drake said. The new capacity would be
enough to power more than 1 million EVs.
Ford previously said its global EV plan calls for at least
240GWh of battery cell capacity by 2030, equal to about 10 plants that will be
placed in North America, Europe, and China. SK has said it aims to ramp up
annual global battery capacity to more than 200GWh in 2025.
Tennessee mega campus
As part of Monday's announcement, Ford will build a
3,600-acre "mega campus" in west Tennessee called Blue Oval City that
will employ 5,800 people and include the assembly plant, lithium-ion battery
production and a supplier park, Drake said. Blue Oval plays off Ford's name for
its corporate logo.
The new Tennessee assembly plant will build the next
generation of the Lightning, using a dedicated EV platform, following its
launch next year, Drake said. The initial Lightning model will be built on a
platform heavily derived from the gasoline-powered F-150.
Drake did not disclose the planned production capacity for
the Tennessee truck plant.
The site will also include zero-waste-to-landfill processes
to capture materials and scrap.
In central Kentucky, Ford will build BlueOvalSK Battery
Park, employing 5,000 people. The site will consist of twin plants building
lithium-ion batteries for Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles, starting in 2025.
The second factory will open the following year.
The companies will receive $500 million in incentives from
Tennessee and almost $300 million as well as more than 1,500 acres of land from
Kentucky.
The United Auto Workers union, which represents Ford's US
hourly workers, has said the automaker has a "moral obligation" to
make sure any battery plant jobs are good-paying union jobs. Drake said that
will be determined by the workers, but added Ford emphasised to SK it must not
be anti-union.
Monday's announcement builds on Ford's deal last week to
partner with Redwood Materials to form a circular supply chain for EV
batteries, from raw materials to recycling. Redwood will be located at Ford's
Tennessee site.
Ford said on Monday it will separately spend $525 million over the next five years to fund job training and career readiness initiatives for US auto technicians to help prepare for the shift to EVs. That program begins in Texas, where Ford is spending $90 million alone. © Reuters
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