With EV adoption not meeting previous expectations, Ford – along with some of its rivals – has scaled back its expansion plans somewhat, choosing to pause $12 million in investments and finish building out a second EV battery plant at the joint-venture BlueOval SK Battery Park, but not use it to build anything at first. Meanwhile, Ford also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Koc and LG Energy Solutions – the world’s biggest battery manufacturer outside of China – to form a joint venture and create a new commercial EV battery plant near Ankara, Turkey this past February, but now, the construction of that plant may be delayed as well, according to The Korean Economic Daily.
According to this new report, LG is considering delaying the ground breaking at its future joint-venture plant in Turkey, a process that was expected to begin by the end of 2023, with production previously slated to start in 2026. “Given Ford’s recent decision to cut EV investments, the industry slowdown and local circumstances, there is little incentive for the stakeholders to proceed quickly,” the source noted. However, an LG spokesperson somewhat denied this report, stating that “nothing has been decided concerning the construction site and the ground-breaking timing.”
The proposed EV battery plant operated by a joint venture between Ford, LG, and Koc is slated to be located in a commercial industrial zone in Başkent. If and when it does come to fruition, the new site will be one of Europe’s largest commercial electric vehicle battery cell facilities with at least 25 GWh of annual production capacity, which could potentially expand up to 45 GWh later down the road.
Meanwhile, Ford has been working with Koc Holding and LG Energy Solution for years now. LGES supplies batteries from its plant in Poland for the Ford Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit, while FoMoCo and Koc have been working together for nearly a century, establishing the Ford Otosan joint venture more than 60 years ago. Ford Otosan currently builds the E-Transit in Turkey, and will soon produce the all-new E-Transit Custom and E-Tourneo Custom, too.
We’ll have more on the future of this EV battery plant soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
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