The F-150 pickup truck is, of course, the most important vehicle in the Ford lineup. Needless to say, its all-electric version, the F-150 Lightning, is at the very centre of its move into electric mobility as well.
The company had already announced that it plans to double production capacity for the first year of the pickup on the market (2024), from the original 40,000 units to 80,000. In all, customers have placed 150,000 reservations to date. Clearly, it won't be difficult to reach the initial goal of 10 percent of F-150 sales for the Lightning version.
Now, Ford is looking to the future and announcing major investments to ensure adequate production capacity for the model, as well as for all the other electric products it has in its sights.
Yesterday, the company announced that it will, in conjunction with energy company SK Innovation, invest $11.4 billion USD in its electric future, including building a new factory to produce the next generation of F-Series electric models. Of the total, $7 billion will come from Ford's coffers.
As a result, future F-Series electric trucks will be built at a new $5.6 billion complex called Blue Oval City, to be built on 3,600 acres of land in Stanton, near Memphis, Tennessee. According to Ford, Blue Oval City will bring to life “an expanded line of electric F-Series vehicles,” which obviously suggests that other models in the lineup, perhaps Super Duty versions, will get electric variants by the time the plant is up and running in 2025.
The location will also include a battery plant to be built in collaboration with SK Innovation, facilities for major suppliers and others for recycling. The new plant is expected to employ 6,000 new workers and is designed to be carbon neutral, minimize waste and not use fresh water for manufacturing processes, instead treating and recycling that which is on site. Ford will also work with Redwood Materials Group on recycling the batteries once they reach their end of life.
But that's not all. Ford will also build, again in partnership with SK Innovation, a battery manufacturing complex in Glendale, Kentucky, on a 1500-acre site, at a cost of $5.8 billion. The two plants at the BlueOvalSK Battery Park will assemble batteries for the next generation of Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles, creating 5,000 jobs. The first plant will open in 2025 with the second beginning production the following year.
Ford is also investing $525 million across the U.S. (over five years) to train the next generation of automotive technicians specializing in connected electric vehicles.
Recall that Ford has said it expects 40-50 percent of its global production to be electric by 2030.
