Ford has officially broken ground on its $5.8 billion Blue Oval SK Battery Park in Glendale, KY, where the automaker’s joint venture with SK will produce 5,000 new jobs in the region when it begins production in 2025.
Ford announced Dec. 5 the Blue Oval SK Battery Park is officially under construction, with two massive battery manufacturing plants capable of more than 80 gigawatt hours of production annually at the forefront of the project.
The plant is expected to help increase Ford’s production output of electric vehicles to 2 million units per year, but will require a serious headcount once production gets moving. Five thousand new workers will fill the buildings at Blue Oval SK Battery Park, but before they get there, they will be trained at a new institution, the Elizabethtown Community and Technical College.
Ford and SK are leaving no stone unturned in their joint venture, which has culminated in one of the largest battery production efforts in the U.S.
“BlueOval SK Battery Park will be at the core of the electrification of the North American auto market,” said SK On President and CEO Jee Dong-seob. “We expect SK On and Ford’s leadership in the global electric vehicle market to be solidified through BlueOval SK.”
Construction is currently on schedule, with “significant progress” being made at the site. So far, Ford lists the following as what it has accomplished on the property:
- Moved 4.3 million cubic yards of soil, enough to fill 200 American football stadiums
- Laid 283,000 tons of stone, equivalent to the weight of nearly 1,350 locomotives
- Poured 66,000 cubic yards of concrete, enough to fill 356 backyard swimming pools
- Installed 3,300 tons of rebar ties to reinforce the concrete, equivalent to the weight of more than 470 elephants
- Installed 1,300 deep foundations, equal to the height of nearly 60 Empire State Buildings stacked end to end
- Erected 7,900 tons of structural steel, equivalent to the weight of nearly 400 fire trucks
Ford is also developing another massive battery manufacturing plant in western Tennessee, which will also build future units of the F-150 Lightning. Ford broke ground on that plant, known as BlueOval City, a $5.6 billion project, in late September.
Abby Andrews