Ford has received a huge, $9.2 billion loan from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) for the construction of three manufacturing plants that will produce batteries for electric vehicles built under the Ford and Lincoln brands.
The loan is the biggest the US government has ever awarded to a carmaker since the 2009 bailouts, according to Bloomberg, being more than triple the size of the $2.5 billion loan received by General Motors last year.
Ford will use the money to build the so-called BlueOval City project which is made in collaboration with cell maker SK Innovation and will spawn two battery-producing facilities in Central Kentucky and another one in West Tennessee.
Gallery: BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Kentucky
All three sites are expected to go online in 2025 when they will have a combined capacity of 129 gigawatt-hours annually which will go toward Ford’s plan of assembling around two million EVs per year by 2026 – a massive ramp-up compared to the roughly 132,000 units it made last year.
The end goal of this massive undertaking is to build a reliable domestic supply chain while reducing America’s reliance on China when it comes to building EVs, which will also lead to more Americans gaining access to the government’s $7,500 tax credit for US-built EVs.
As it stands today, the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup is the only vehicle in the Blue Oval company’s lineup that qualifies for the full tax credit, while the Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit are only eligible for a $3,750 credit.
Gallery: Ford BlueOval City in Tennessee
On the other hand, the government’s massive plan to ramp up EV adoption in the US is based on taxpayer’s money: the huge low-interest loan awarded to Ford, as well as the tax credits awarded to buyers of American-made EVs, are supported by tax money.
When the three facilities become operational in 2025, they’ll create roughly 11,000 new jobs for Americans, with 6,000 positions expected to become available in Stanton, West Tennessee, and another 5,000 in Glendale, Central Kentucky.
Ford’s six-square-mile manufacturing complex in Tennessee will also be home to an electric vehicle plant that will produce the company’s next-generation pickup truck codenamed T3 and will be able to churn out 500,000 vehicles per year.
Combined, the three battery-making sites and the EV manufacturing facility will have an estimated price tag of $11.4 billion.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.
