Ford is in the midst of investing $50 billion in EVs with the goal of producing 600,000 of them by 2024 and two million annually by 2026, an effort that requires a massive infusion of batteries, as one might imagine. In that regard, Ford has signed deals with a wide variety of suppliers as it aims to start making its own cost-effective lithium-iron phosphate units in-house at the new BlueOval Michigan Battery Park in 2026, while LFP batteries will wind up being used in standard range versions of both the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning before then. However, Ford CEO Jim Farley recently told Yahoo Finance that batteries continue to serve as the main barrier to the automaker’s efforts to ramp up EV production, regardless.
“First of all, batteries are the constraint here,” the Ford CEO said in a recent interview. “Both lithium and nickel are really the key constraining commodities. We normally get those from all over the world – South America, Africa, Indonesia. We want to localize that in North America, not just the mining but the processing of the materials. The big change is going to be onshore all that capability of processing but also mining back in the U.S. It will be a huge job, just like it has for semiconductors.”
Therein lies the problem, as Ford pointed out – right now, even raw materials mined in the U.S. are often shipped to China for processing, which is something that government officials, automakers, and domestic suppliers are working to change. One alternative to solving this problem lies in batteries such as the aforementioned LFP units, which don’t use nickel or cobalt in their construction. In the meantime, however, FoMoCo is forced to rely on batteries and materials that are sourced from all parts of the globe.
“We have to get these materials from around the world until we localize the supply chain, which is what we want to do,” Farley said. “By the end of the year, we’ll secure all the raw materials to make the two million batteries by 2026 that we are going to need to go into our vehicles. We should be in good shape here.”
We’ll have more on Ford’s efforts to ramp up EV production soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
Yes, all those decades of “offshoring” aren’t going to be able to be reversed in a time frame that will suffice for many current demands. That’s what happens when profit is the number one consideration. Not to say that it is not important…it sure is, but when it becomes blinding, this is the situation you’re left with. It’s going to be a rough ride for some time!
Let’s not forget the very small fact that Americans aren’t interested in EVs on any type of significant scale. Most of the recent automotive articles have been pointing that out recently.
It’s why Ford is losing 3 billion a year on its EV product catalog.
Just tell China to get those kids, prisoners and slaves to work harder at mining these metals!! And build more coal plants to keep up with production!! Americans demand to feel good about themselves, and we need these “greem” batteries!!
You are 100% correct sir!
It would be better to get the whole EV thingie right before making the push now to kill off ICE. Remember that ICE’s are still money makers and EV’s are money losers currently. Maybe after 15-20 years, EV’s will be better and can be profitable. etc.