Ford to spend record €9.7bn building three battery factories in US       

Since becoming Ford’s boss a year ago, chief executive officer Jim Farley has accelerated efforts to make the switch to an all-electric future, earning a plug from President Joe Biden on the electric F-150 and striking a battery joint venture with South Korea's SK. File  picture

Ford Motor and South Korea’s SK Innovation plan to spend $11.4bn (€9.7bn) to construct three battery factories and an assembly plant for electric F-Series pick-up trucks in Tennessee and Kentucky, the biggest investment in the US carmaker’s history.

The project will create two vast sites to produce electric vehicles and the batteries to power them, employing nearly 11,000 workers, the companies said. Ford is spending $7bn, while battery partner SK is kicking in $4.4bn. They begin to come online in 2025.

The projects are part of Ford’s plan to invest $30bn in electric vehicles by 2025, become a player in a market dominated by Tesla and challenge General Motor’s image as leading the legacy automakers. 

Since becoming Ford’s boss a year ago, chief executive officer Jim Farley has accelerated efforts to make the switch to an all-electric future, earning a plug from President Joe Biden on the electric F-150 and striking a battery joint venture with SK.

The Tennessee site to be known as Blue Oval City will occupy six square miles, making it three times the size of the historic Rouge Complex Henry Ford built in Michigan a century ago. It will include a battery plant employing about 2,500 workers and an assembly plant with 3,300 employees. 

• Bloomberg