Construction at the Ford BlueOval SK Battery Plant in Kentucky has been underway for some time now, and has made tremendous progress as of late. However, as Ford Authority reported back in May, the plant was originally expected to begin building EV batteries in early 2025, though it then announced that this process would instead start in late 2025. Now, it seems as if that timeline has shifted again, as the automaker revealed as part of this morning’s sweeping electrification strategy shift.
Rather than late 2025, the joint-venture Ford BlueOval SK Battery Plant in Kentucky – which is being built and operated in conjunction with South Korean battery maker SK On – will now come online in mid-2025, the automaker has announced, “delivering significant cost improvements coming online earlier than planned.” The plant will build battery cells for the current E-Transit van and the Ford F-150 Lightning when it begins production in the middle of next year, too.
Meanwhile, the Ford BlueOval SK Battery Plant was previously tabbed to begin trial operations this month, which are designed to test out the facility’s readiness in terms of building batteries in an efficient and consistent manner. SK On will send personnel to the site to help with this process, with those workers reportedly focused on electrode-related processes, including assembly, activation, and battery packs. When it begins full-scale production in 2025, as expected, the plant will have a total annual capacity of 45 GWh.
As Ford Authority reported yesterday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear recently revealed that the Ford BlueOval SK Battery Park site won’t utilize union labor, though it wasn’t immediately clear if he was referencing Ford’s new master contract with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union last year, or another possible agreement that may have been reached by Ford and the UAW after those talks had ended.
We’ll have more on Ford BlueOval SK Battery Park soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for continuous Ford news coverage.
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