As Ford Authority reported earlier this week, FoMoCo’s newest EV battery plant and the first to produce lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries will be located in Marshall, Michigan. Officially called the Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, this new facility will represent a $3.5 billion dollar investment on the automaker’s part and will employ around 2,500 people when it begins production in 2026. However, not everyone was thrilled about this announcement, according to The Detroit News.
In fact, a handful of Marshall residents showed up to protest the new plant in the city’s center this week, expressing a number of concerns they have regarding the Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan site. Those residents are worried that the plant will harm the small town’s charm, as well as local wildlife and the environment, with the large facility representing a possible eyesore along the picturesque Kalamazoo River as well.
“I live on the river; it would be right in my backyard,” said 86-year-old Marshall Township resident Mary-Jo Budrow, who participated in the protest. “I like the river,” she said. “I do not want to have a manufacturer across there with all the lights and the noise that’s going to be coming from that factory.” However, the site’s supporters argue that the new plant will bring about a much-needed economic infusion in an area that has seen previous little growth over the years. “These new jobs represent a positive economic impact for the area,” said Marshall Mayor Jim Schwartz. “You’ll be excited to see how the community can benefit while preserving its historic small-town feel.”
This isn’t the first time Ford has faced public opposition to a new plant, as the automaker also found its fair share of detractors in Tennessee, where it’s in the process of erecting BlueOval City, which will produce EVs and EV batteries starting in 2025. Aside from environmental concerns, those residents are also worried about things like increased traffic and the strain the plant will place on existing infrastructure.
We’ll have more on the Ford BlueOval City Michigan complex soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
Should have named it Xi Jinping Park!
Oh boy, K-street Gregg 2g’s with the helpful commentary. Must be slow around his claimed 3 franchises today.
It’s not so much that Ford is building a plant in Marshall, Mich. It’s all the secrecy in the form of non- disclosure agreements, the “ surprise “ assault on the community, and the “ forced choice” given to homeowners whose chosen lifestyle will be obliterated with no real opportunity for input on this decision.
LoL K-street launches a new rhetorical assault because in Michigan they don’t own a GQP Governor considering a presidential bid.
Surprise my butt, only surprise is you didn’t add the GQP creepy words “under darkness of night”.
This plant is being built, on a ca 950 acre part of a 1,600 acres of undeveloped land outside the town, on a parcel the Marshall area economic development authority has been trying to fill for a decade.
As for input, citizens of the town have known about this land for 10 years, and have not been significantly against it in all that time, nor in the final town meeting.
So please stuff your disinformation and take a hike.
OK Stephen…. without any facts…. this is just stupid talk on your part. As for all the NIMBY’s, perhaps we could carve out a state for many of them to live. Its hard to imagine how ‘running water and flush toilets’ ever came to this country when you hear this stuff. Of course Ford has to run a ‘clean’ operation without toxic pollutants making their way into the living world and I am confident they will.
Who cares about the homeowners or wildlife. They just live there.
Apparently you speak from profound ignorance.
(Or do you? Are you lying in service of some hidden objective?)
The area has lost jobs over the last years at both the local Eaton and State Farm facilities, so economic development was an item of interest for locals so they wouldn’t have to move away to get jobs (also local businesses for obvious reasons.)
About 1/4 of Ford’s parcel, ca 275 acres, lying along the Kalamazoo river, will be put into permanent trust for wildlife and natural beauty preservation.
So you too, if you are here to spread disinfo might go fishing somewhere else.