Ford’s electric vehicle investment fueling American jobs with new mega sites
Ford CEO Jim Farley said new factories in Tennessee, Kentucky will create 11,000 jobs and bring EV's to scale
Ford CEO on building mega sites in Kentucky, Tennessee
Ford Motors CEO Jim Farley discusses EVs and building new factories in Tennessee and Kentucky.
Ford Motors CEO Jim Farley said it’s "show, not tell time," while discussing plans to build two new mega sites in Kentucky and Tennessee that will ramp up electric vehicle production and create thousands of new jobs.
"We are going to hire 11,000 people, we are going to build the biggest plant we’ve ever built in the history of the company," Farley said of the $11.4 billion investment with SK Innovation during an interview on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday.
Ford will construct Blue Oval City-- a massive, $5.6 billion, 3,600-acre campus outside Memphis Tennessee, that will create 6,000 jobs and build the next-generation electric F-series pickups and advanced batteries.
The automaker is also building a new $5.8 billion battery manufacturing park in Kentucky to power a new lineup of Ford and Lincoln EVs.
FORD SALES DOWN 33% IN AUGUST AMID CHIP SHORTAGE
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | FORD MOTOR CO. | 10.98 | -0.15 | -1.35% |
Farley said between to two locations "about a million worth of batteries" will be built.
Farley pointed out that the success of the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric truck, is partially what prompted Ford’s focus on EVs.
"It's America's bestselling vehicle already," he said. "We know how to do trucks and it's go-time for us to scale our electric vehicles."
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He went on to say that both the F-150 and the Mustang Mach-E, an all-electric SUV, are sold out for more than a year and aims to expand capacity and build more batteries within the company.
"We are breaking our capacity now for the F-150 and the Mach-E, but we have to build a lot more capacity and a lot more batteries because we have to in-source the batteries," he said.
Ford CEO announces new plants to build all-electric trucks
Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the new electric production plants in Tennessee and Kentucky that will create 11,000 jobs.
Ford’s shift to the south was driven by the auto industry’s worker shortage and absenteeism the company is seeing at some facilities.
"That's why we came to Tennessee and Kentucky. We work with both governors and the development teams and there's skilled labor here in these specific sites. [It] took us a year to find these sites," Farley told Fox News’ Steve Doocy. "The availability of skilled labor in high quantity was one of the key reasons why we're building these sites where they are."
The CEO also touched on the semiconductor chip shortage that has hit the entire auto sector and said government support is needed to solve the issue.