Ford jolts auto industry with $11.4 billion investment in new electric vehicle, battery plants
The Ford Motor Co. gave the auto industry a jolt Monday with word that it plans to spend $11.4 billion on new production sites in Tennessee and Kentucky where it plans to build electric pickup trucks and cars — and the batteries to power them — on a massive scale.
It will also create 11,000 jobs in the two states that have struggled to recover from the collapse of the coal industry.
The audacity of Ford’s massive investment in electric vehicles was not lost on Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford.
“If my great-grandfather saw our industry five years ago, it would be very recognizable to him, it hadn’t changed a lot,” he said of the Ford founder, Henry Ford, in an interview with Tom Costello on "NBC Nightly News."
“There were a lot of evolutions, but no revolutions. Now we’re on the cusp of a revolution. It’s not just the electrification, although that’s a huge piece of it.”
It’s also a chance, Ford said in a statement, to “achieve goals once thought mutually exclusive — protect our planet, build great electric vehicles Americans will love, and contribute to our nation’s prosperity.”
Of those new jobs, 6,000 are destined for what’s being called the Blue Oval City campus in Stanton, Tennessee, a $5.6 billion megacampus where electric versions of the popular F-series pickup truck will be manufactured, along with electric batteries.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ford-jolts-auto-industry-11-4-billion-investment-new-electric-n1280182
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