BlueOval SK launches battery production at Kentucky plant for Ford's Electric F-150

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Commercial production at Hardin County's BlueOval SK battery plant is underway.

In a news release, BlueOval SK said the first battery to be sold to a customer rolled off the assembly line Tuesday at the first Kentucky plant in Glendale. Batteries from this plant will power the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning.

"We are proud to build batteries at our Kentucky 1 facility that will power next-generation electric vehicles," BlueOval SK CEO Michael Adams said in a statement. He said the company is creating good-paying, American jobs and "strengthening the domestic supply chain and driving the transition to zero-emissions transportation."

The company said more than 1,450 team members will gather on campus this week to celebrate the launch.

The Kentucky 1 plant will also produce batteries for Ford’s current E-Transit with enhanced range, but it is not clear when production at the Kentucky 2 plant will begin.

The state of Kentucky agreed to give BlueOval an interest-free loan of $250 million if the company employs 2,500 people by 2026 and 5,000 by 2030. The BlueOval SK battery plant at BlueOval City in Tennessee will begin production in 2027.

BlueOval SK is a joint venture between American automaker Ford and South Korean conglomerate SK On. The $5.8 billion Kentucky plants were announced in Sept. 2021.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called the production announcement a historic milestone four years in the making.

"This remains the single largest investment in the history of our state, and it sparked a surge of new investment and job announcements that placed Kentucky at the center of EV-related innovation. I am grateful to Ford and SK On leaders for believing in Kentucky and our workforce. Now is the time to do what we do best as Kentuckians: deliver results," Beshear said in a statement.

Ford announced in early August that the Louisville Assembly Plant will be the launch site for a new generation of electric vehicles built on the company’s Universal EV Platform.

The first product off the line will be a midsize, four-door electric pickup, expected to reach customers in 2027 with a targeted starting price of about $30,000. Ford has not shown the design of the new model.

Ford will begin production of the new EV's in 2026 with 2,200 employees. However, that's 1,000 less employees than the plant had in 2023 and it currently employs about 2,800 hourly workers.

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