GM’s crosstown rival, Ford Motor Company, says it will restart construction of its new Blue Oval Battery Park Michigan plant in Marshall, but adds that the final plant size will be scaled down from what was initially announced. Ford halted construction of the facility in September as a result of local political wrangling and fallout from the UAW labor strike. The scale-down follows an announcement from GM that The General was delaying new EV production at its Lake Orion Assembly facility.
According to a recent report from Crain’s Detroit Business, which cites statements from Ford’s chief communications officer, Mark Truby, Ford says the upcoming Blue Oval Battery Park Michigan plant is now expected to create roughly 1,700 jobs, 32 percent fewer new jobs than the 2,500 new jobs originally anticipated. Production capacity is also expected to be reduced by 40 percent to 20 gigawatt hours, while total investment is likely to be $2.2 billion, down from an initial estimate of $3.5 billion.
Battery production is still expected to begin in 2026.
“We’ve been studying this project for the past couple of months, and I think we’re all aware that EV adoption is growing, and we expect that to continue actually, but it’s not growing at the pace that I think ourselves and the industry had expected,” Truby said.
Ford was set to receive roughly $1.7 billion in state subsidies for the project. Truby said that Ford now expects incentives for the project to be reduced in light of the lower job creation estimates.
The new Blue Oval Battery Park Michigan plant will produce lithium iron phosphate batteries, or LFP batteries, with the automaker licensing the battery technology from Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company, CATL.
The Blue Oval brand is now navigating future investments in light of higher labor costs negotiated during the six-month UAW strike, which affected numerous production facilities across the Big Three Detroit automakers (GM, Ford, and Stellantis). Ford’s licensing agreement with CATL has also raised concerns regarding eligibility for federal tax credits.
Nevertheless, Truby indicated that the new battery plant could be expanded if demand warrants.
“We want to be really disciplined about how we allocate capital and think about matching production and future capacity based on demand,” Truby said.
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Comments
Dundundun no one saw this coming….
Great ,they are seeing the light ,GM will be next.
Wait, EV’s aren’t selling? Who knew?
It wasn’t too long ago that people were saying EVs were going to catch on because the government was forcing it. This article, among many, suggests a different outcome. People aren’t excited for EVs. Not even the 24/7 hype train could convince the masses that they need a $50,000 300 mile range car that takes 40 minutes to charge (on a good charger; 10 hours at home). If EVs are going to catch on, they are going to need a qualitative advantage over traditional vehicles. They don’t have it yet.
It took over 100 years to get the ICE as it is today, far more efficient and power. HP has increased about 300% from about 50-60 years ago (muscle car error). It’ll take many more years for battery technology to improve where EV may one day be the main stream.
Fake news in all it’s glory. Research Goshen MI battery plant. It was going to be owned by the Chinese communist party because Ford didn’t want the liability. The residents of Goshen all but rebelled and threw out the county exec, board and clerk. New exec is promising to redo zoning to shut the whole thing down.
It was a raw deal. Gov Witmer promising tax dollars to the Chinese, the Chinese required favorable representation in the school district, imminent domain was being used on local dairy farms. It was the most un-american thing Michigan had seen.
Nothing to do with Ford’s plans. They just can’t achieve their plans honestly. Ford’s board/execs and the Ford family patriarch is still 100% in on the Chinese/ESG and the green new deal.
With Ford stating they are losing $36,000 on each EV they sell, I can’t imagine why they would want to sit back spending money to increase production.
You do realize that scale up would reduce/eliminate losses right? That’s how basic production of any product works.
But now we are stuck with 3 cyl cars that I certainly don’t want. E/v uh/uh. An n/a v6 sedan or hatch and I might bite.
Funny … the blue oval boys advertise “all in on America” yet they’re licensing china battery technology. Just like they falsely advertised not taking any government money when GM and Chrysler did. Maybe they should change to Frod