The joint-venture BlueOval SK Battery Park site in Kentucky was originally slated to have two operational plants on its sprawling campus, which would employ 5,000 people. However, amid slower than expected demand for EVs, Ford and SK On opted to only utilize one of those plants and hire 2,500 workers in the interim, with production currently slated to begin very soon. Now, however, it seems as if the singular operational BlueOval SK Battery Park plant won’t just be building batteries for Ford, as some of that space will also be used to supply them to one of its rivals.
That rival is Nissan, according to The Wall Street Journal, which will now utilize part of the BlueOval SK Battery Park site to build batteries for its own EVs. The move makes sense given Ford’s scale back in terms of planned production, coupled with Nissan’s desire to avoid tariffs by building batteries in the U.S. Back in March, SK On announced that it had signed a battery supply agreement with Nissan, which will result in the company supplying the automaker with roughly 100 GWh of EV batteries between 2028-2033, all of which will be built in the U.S.
The batteries utilize high-nickel pouch cells and will power Nissan’s next-generation EVs, which will be built at the company’s plant in Canton, Mississppi starting in 2028 as that automaker works to dig itself out of a large financial hole. It is worth noting that none of the parties involved confirmed this report when asked to comment on the matter, and SK On did add that it hasn’t yet determined where it will build EV batteries for Nissan in the U.S. as of yet. In the meantime, Ford and SK On are facing allegations of unsafe working conditions at BlueOval SK Battery Park, which elicited a statement from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union recently.
Slowing demand for EVs also recently prompted The Blue Oval to push back its planned production start date for the next-generation Ford F-150 EV from 2026 to 2027 at the under-construction Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center, located nearby at the BlueOval City site.
Comments
Another foolish move
I’ll clarify that: Why support a competitor? Unless Nissan is paying more than their fair share for the convenience that Ford installed by building that plant, it is a bad move. Should have opened up that floor space for a Ford supplier trying to move their mfg from overseas to a USA based operation.
I think at this point Ford’s trying to recoup the money they wasted on their EV endeavors.
May be a good move as when Nissan goes bankrupt or has a major downsizing then F can move into the Canton, MS facility and produce the Ranger EV, Maverick and / or Puma.
Incase you’ve been under a rock for 30 years, Fords had investments and shared platforms with nissan, Mazda, Volvo, just to name a few. So not a competitor but a collaboration between 2 vested entities with similar views in mind