The Ford Motor Company has selected the Memphis Regional Megasite in Haywood County for an electric vehicle and battery manufacturing campus.
Ford will invest $5.6 billion in the project and create 5,800 jobs.
State Senator Ed Jackson (R-Jackson) made the following statement regarding the announcement that Ford Motor Company will be locating a new manufacturing facility at the Memphis Regional Megasite:
“This is a total game changer for West Tennessee and one of the biggest jobs announcement in Tennessee history. All of this region will reap the benefits from this facility. We are excited to work with Ford as they move forward on this project that will bring new high-quality jobs with benefits to our area. It will also have a tremendous impact in bringing other businesses, industries and auto suppliers to West Tennessee. We appreciate all the work done by Governor Lee, Commissioner Rolfe and our local officials in securing this huge investment that will build a brighter future for Tennesseans.”
According to ‘The Verge,’ Blue Oval City will become a “vertically integrated ecosystem” for Ford’s assembly of an expanded lineup of electric F-series vehicles. It will also include a battery plant, key suppliers, and recycling. (Ford recently struck a deal with Redwood Materials, a battery recycler founded by a former top executive from Tesla.) Ford said that Blue Oval City is also designed to be carbon neutral with “zero waste to landfill” once fully operational.
Ford and South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation will spend a combined $11.4 billion to build several new factories in the Tennessee and Kentucky focused on the development and production of electric vehicles and the batteries that power them.
The new facilities represent the first new plants built by Ford, completely from scratch, in over 50 years. The Tennessee plant will be a “mega campus” that houses a vehicle-production facility for Ford’s F-series pickup trucks and a battery assembly division, while the twin factories in Kentucky will manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
