Ford, SK plan $11.4 bn investment for electric battery plants in US

Automobile company Ford and its South Korean battery partner SK Innovation will fund $11.4 billion to develop an electric F-150 assembly facility and three battery facilities in the US, stimulating the automaker's push into electric vehicles.

On Monday, Ford told the media that it now anticipates having 40% to 50% of its global vehicle capacity to be all-electric by 2030, increased from its previous forecast of 40%.

Ford said that the firm plans to generate approximately 11,000 jobs by building assembly and battery factories in Tennessee, Stanton, and two additional battery facilities in Kentucky, Glendale, as part of Ford's earlier announced aim to spend over $30 billion by 2030 on electrification. Factories on both locations will open in 2025.

Ford North American Chief Operating Officer Lisa Drake told the media that the Tennessee assembly and battery complex would be around three times the size of Ford's sprawling, century-old Rouge production complex in Dearborn, Michigan.

The No 2 US carmaker's part of the investment is $7 billion, with SK covering the rest. The firms will fund $5.8 billion in Kentucky and $5.6 billion in Tennessee.

The South Korean battery maker, which provides electric car batteries to Ford Motor and Hyundai Motor, among others, has battery manufacturing sites in China, Hungary, United States, and South Korea. With its three additional battery factories and two battery facilities in Georgia, SK Innovation is ready to obtain a yearly capacity of around 150 GWh of batteries in the United States.

SK Innovation told the media that it anticipates surpassing the aim of achieving a yearly global manufacturing capacity of 200 GWh of batteries by 2025. Its present capacity is 40 GWh.

Ford, which aims to roll out the electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck next spring, has moved more aggressively to launch its EV strategy under Jim Farley. Earlier this month, Ford doubled the proposed manufacturing capacity in Dearborn, Michigan, for the F-150 Lightning to 80,000 yearly because of strong pre-launch demand for the electric pickup.

Ford and other automakers are pushing hard to plan for the launch of EVs as countries like China and Europe seek higher reduction of vehicle emissions.

The proposed lithium-ion battery factories were developed on a memorandum of understanding declared by Ford and SK in May. The battery facilities will be controlled together with SK and have a combined yearly capacity of 129 GWh of batteries, which could power around 2.2 million EVs when completely operational, over twice the level described in May. The new capacity would be sufficient to power over one million EVs.

Ford previously said that its global EV aim calls for at least 240 GWh of battery cell capacity by 2030, equivalent to around 10 plants that would be set up in North America, Europe, and China. SK has said that it plans to increase the yearly global battery capacity to over 200 GWh in 2025.

Image Source

---

Also read: Green Evolve inks pact with CATL for long-term cell procurement

Also read: NTPC invites global bids for a 1 GWh grid-scale battery storage