Ford’s Blue Oval City campus was originally announced back in September as a new, sprawling complex set to be built in Stanton, Tennessee. There, the automaker will produce electric vehicles, including a next-generation electric Ford F-Series model, which will ride on its own dedicated platform, as well as batteries, while also housing suppliers and creating around 6,000 new jobs. At the same time, Ford is also building BlueOvalSk Battery Park – a major component of the automaker’s joint venture with SK Innovation – in Glendale, Kentucky. Aside from working to develop qualified workers ahead of opening these new battery plants in 2025, Ford is also searching for suppliers, according to Louisville Business First.
“We will be working with a myriad of different suppliers on further battery opportunities, including vertical integration and the parts that go into batteries,” said Greg Christensen, Ford’s electrical vehicle footprint director. “Just as we have to add capacity for the cells, we have to add capacity for the materials that go into the cells. We’re going to have to go where the materials are. We’re excited about the size and breadth of what we’ve got.”
Christensen stopped short of naming specific suppliers the automaker is eyeing but admitted that it hopes to alleviate logistics costs by finding partners that are geographically close to its new plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, which was part of the reason why those locations were chosen in the first place.
Ford is spending $5.8 billion of a combined $11.4 billion dollar investment on BlueOvalSK Battery Park, which will produce batteries that will power a number of future electric vehicles from Ford and Lincoln. Together with Blue Oval City, these plants will have the capacity to produce over one million EVs annually, according to Christensen.
We’ll have more on BlueOvalSK Battery Park soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for non-stop Ford news coverage.
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