Ford Motor Company announced it is aiming to build about 500,000 electric trucks per year at its BlueOval City complex that is under construction in Tennessee. And the goal is to have a global EV production capacity of 2 million vehicles a year in place by the end of 2026.
BlueOval City is going to assemble several different versions of Ford’s F-series electric pickup, which is codenamed Project T. And this plant will also have a battery plant capable of producing about 40 gigawatt-hours worth of cells, which is enough to supply up to half a million electric vehicles per year.
Ford said BlueOval City are going to have a general assembly footprint that is 30% smaller than a traditional assembly plant and it will have a higher production capacity. Currently, most auto plants are able to build 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles per year.
Ford and its battery partner SK On are planning to invest $5.6 billion to develop the BlueOval City complex. Due to the costs of developing EV platforms and building EV/battery assembly plants, Ford is projecting a $3 billion adjusted EBIT loss for this year in its Model e business unit.