F-Series (Ford)

Ford has been progressing on construction of its BlueOval City complex in Tennessee, which includes an EV battery plant and separate EV assembly site 

The BlueOval City battery plant, operated in a joint venture between Ford and SK On, is set to begin trial operations in August to test out the facility’s readiness in terms of building batteries.

SK On will send personnel to the site to help with this process, with those workers focusing on “electrode-related processes, including assembly, activation, and battery packs.”

When it begins full-scale production in late 2025, a few months later than previously expected, the battery plant will have a total annual capacity of 45 GWh. 

The joint venture is still building two plants at the site, but will only utilize one for the time being, as Ford has also recently decided to downsize its Michigan-based battery plant

EV assembly at the BlueOval City complex has pushed back its planned production start date for a next-generation Ford F-150 EV pickup from 2025 to 2026.

(multiple sources on July 15, 2024)

On July 9, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) reduced incentives to Ford Motor Co. after slower-than-expected EV sales resulted in the OEM pulling back on plans at its battery plant in Marshall.

The revised project for the BlueOval Battery Park Michigan calls for Ford to invest a minimum of USD 2.5 billion and maximum investment USD 3 billion, down from USD 3.5 billion from before Ford’s announcement in November that it was shrinking the project by 43% and its job creation by 32%. 

Michigan’s revised incentive package now is valued between USD 384 million and USD 409 million, down from almost USD 1.035 billion.

Construction of BlueOval Battery Park Michigan is approximately 20% complete. The main facility will be nearly 1.8 million square feet, comprising a cell plant and a pack plant. Additional support buildings will bring the total operation to approximately 2 million square feet.

The plant is expected to have a capacity of 20 GWh of capacity, down from the initially expected 35 GWh, and will now create 1,700 jobs, down from 2,500 jobs.

Besides the scaled back incentive package for BlueOval Battery Park, Ford also received approval for incentives for a USD 2.014 billion investment into 10 Michigan manufacturing sites to create 3,260 jobs. 

Ford fell short of expected job creation at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center after becoming a one-shift operation in April in response to sales of the electric F-150 Lightning.

Half of 1,400 the affected workers transferred to Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant to start a third shift to build Bronco SUVs and Ranger pickups, while others transferred to other Ford sites or received buyout packages.

(Ford press release on July 9, 2024) (Detroit News article on July 9, 2024)

On July 3, Ford Motor Company announced that its U.S. sales increased 0.8% to 536,050 units in the second quarter of 2024.

Ford brand sales increased 0.1% to 512,127 units, while Lincoln brand sales increased 18.9% to 23,923 units.

A 4.5% increase in truck sales, to 308,920 units, reflects a lineup that includes the refreshed F-150 and new Ranger midsize pickup. 

Electric vehicle sales rose 61.4% to 23,957 units and hybrid sales were up 55.6% to a quarterly record of 53,822 units, while the majority — 85% — of Ford's sales that are traditional ICE vehicles, fell 5.0% to 458,271 units.

With 44,180 total EVs sold for the first half of 2024, Ford brand EVs trail only Tesla.

Among body styles, overall SUV sales fell 5.3% in the second quarter to 213,393 units, while truck sales increased 4.5% to 308,920 units and passenger car sales increased 27.7% to 13,737 units.

Sales at Lincoln accelerated in Q2 on the strong reception to the all-new Lincoln Nautilus leading the way on sales of 8,273 SUVs. In Q2, Nautilus hybrid represented 44% of all Nautilus sales. Corsair sales were up 17%in Q2, while Aviator sales were up 90%.

Production of the F-150, Ranger and all-new Lincoln Nautilus continues to scale, and the new Ford Explorer will soon begin shipping to dealers, followed by the new Lincoln Aviator SUV, Mustang Mach-E Rally SUV and extended-range E-Transit commercial van.

(Ford press releases on July 3, 2024) 1 / 2