As Ford continues to invest heavily in electrification, the automaker has slowly been revealing its plan to achieve a goal of producing two million EVs annually by 2026, rolling out a total of nine all-electric vehicles for Europe including a future Ford Transit Custom and Ford Puma EV, as well as a pair of new crossovers riding on Volkswagen’s MEB platform. Ford’s operations are in flux as well as the automaker’s joint venture with Koc – Ford Otosan – is preparing to assume ownership of the Ford Craiova Assembly Plant, where many of these models, along with the next-gen VW Transporter van will be built. Now, a newly announced Ford commercial vehicle battery plant figures to play a big role in those plans, too.
This new Ford commercial vehicle battery plant will operate under a newly formed joint-venture between Ford, SK On Co., Ltd., and Koc, which recently signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding for the new business. The joint-venture is still subject to the execution of a final agreement, but once finalized, the three companies plan to create one of the largest EV battery facilities in the European wider region.
The new joint venture is planned for Ankara and will manufacture high Nickel NMC cells for assembly into battery array modules. Production is currently expected to start as early as mid-decade with an annual capacity likely to be in the range of 30 to 45 Gigawatt hours. This new battery joint venture will receive support directly from the Turkish Government and will directly benefit large and small commercial vehicle operators across Europe, reducing energy and running costs and providing a significant contribution to CO2 reduction, according to Ford.
At the same time, the automaker’s ambitious EV plans face their fair share of challenges including supply chain constraints such as the semiconductor chip shortage, as well as surging nickel prices brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We’ll have more on Ford’s electrification plans soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
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