Ford will invest 3,500 million dollars (about 3,254 million euros at current exchange rates) in the construction of a lithium-ferrophosphate (LFP) battery factory for electric vehicles in Michigan (United States), as announced by the car company.

Production is scheduled to start in 2026 and the company plans to employ 2,500 people at the facility, which will be owned by a 100% Ford subsidiary and will be called BlueOval Battery Park Michigan.

The new plant will add about 35 gigawatt hours a year of battery production capacity to Ford in the United States, which, according to its calculations, will be enough to produce approximately 400,000 electric vehicles a year.

In this sense, the North American company has reported that it has reached an agreement with the Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) through which the production of the new plant will use “the knowledge and services of battery cells LFP” of the Asian firm.

Ford will offer customers a second battery technology as it also produces nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries. According to the American firm, this “will allow Ford customers to choose an electric vehicle with battery performance characteristics more aligned with their needs.” LFP batteries are “very durable” and tolerate more frequent and faster charging, in addition to using “fewer high-demand and cost-intensive materials,” they have indicated.

“This low-cost, at-scale battery will help Ford contain or even further reduce EV prices. These LFP batteries will power a variety of affordable Ford 100 % electric cars and trucks, most of which will be assembled in United States”.

With this new investment of 3,500 million dollars, Ford has committed a total of 17,600 million dollars (16,367 million euros) for the production of electric vehicles and batteries in the United States since 2019. This is part of its commitment to invest around of 50,000 million dollars (46,497 million euros) in electric vehicles worldwide until 2026.

“In the next three years these investments will generate more than 18,000 direct jobs in Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Missouri (towns in the United States) and more than 100,000 indirect jobs,” the company highlighted.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Possessed Photography, Unsplash)

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