Battery plant key to Ford EV affordability reportedly set for Michigan

Ford is reportedly partnering with the world’s largest provider of EV battery cells, China’s CATL, for a plant in Michigan that can produce them for upcoming Ford electrical automobiles, based on Friday afternoon stories from the Detroit News and Bloomberg. 

Outdoors of Ford’s $11.4 billion electrical truck manufacturing complexes in Tennessee and Kentucky and its BlueOvalSK enterprise with South Korea’s SK On, the reportedly chosen web site round Marshall, Michigan, could show to be an important industrial operation but because the automaker seeks better profitability from its EVs. 

BlueOvalSK Battery Park – rendering, September 2021

Based on the Detroit Information report, the venture could create roughly 2,500 jobs and draw not less than a $2.5 billion funding. Beneath an association that seems to deviate from current joint ventures, Ford would personal the land and plant, handle the workforce, and obtain any state incentives.

The ability will reportedly make lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are usually cheaper. Because of a extra steady provide of the vital supplies they want, the supplies that go into them are much less topic to cost volatility. However the tradeoff has been that these cells are considerably heavier for the quantity of power they retailer, and cold-weather charging can gradual dramatically. 

CATL third-generation cell-to-pack tech

These could now not be such disadvantages by the point the automobiles attain market. CATL has already proven LFP cells, together with its newest cell-to-pack know-how, can obtain power densities near that of present lithium-ion battery packs.

Ford mentioned final yr that LFP batteries are sure for the Mustang Mach-E, Ford F-150 Lightning, and maybe different merchandise, as they ramp up, maybe permitting Ford to chop costs on account of a pending EV worth warfare and/or obtain better profitability. 

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning

CEO Jim Farley mentioned final week that Ford’s future EVs shall be “radically simplified,” because it seeks to make use of the smallest doable battery packs, decrease elements, and streamline the meeting course of for upcoming EVs. 

Based on the stories, an announcement on the power is due Monday.