Ford Gives Michigan a ‘Wake-Up Call’ With Out-of-State EV Expansion
The carmaker’s $11.4 billion planned investment in electric vehicle and battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky is forcing local officials to examine how the state will compete.
Digital rendering of Blue Oval City, Ford’s coming EV and battery factories in Stanton, Tenn.
Courtesy: FordEver since Henry Ford’s Model T brought mobility to the masses a century ago, Michigan has been America’s automotive epicenter, home to scores of vehicle parts and production plants—and the tens of thousands of jobs that go with them. Now the birthplace of the U.S. auto industry is suffering a crisis of confidence after being passed over by hometown hero Ford Motor Co. for $11.4 billion in new electric vehicle and battery factories in favor of Kentucky and Tennessee. “The reality,” the Detroit News wrote in an editorial on Sept. 28, is that Michigan is “unprepared to achieve its dreams of dominating the automotive future.”
The project includes three battery factories in Kentucky and Tennessee and Ford’s first brand-new assembly plant in a half-century, to be located in a rural area near Memphis. The four factories, which Ford is building with South Korean battery partner SK Innovation Co., will employ almost 11,000 workers.