Ford Is Opening Two New Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facilities in Michigan
Following a $29 billion USD push into the EV market earlier this year.
Doubling down on its efforts to manufacture more electric and autonomous vehicles — which came in the form of a $29 billion USD investment earlier this year — Ford has now announced the construction of Ford Ion Park, its very own EV battery manufacturing facility.
Located in southeast Michigan, the new establishment will be home to 150 experts across the electric car industry, who will help the American automaker develop and produce battery packs for its own EV lineup. The team will be led by the company’s current director of electrified systems engineering, Anand Sankaran, and will focus on creating batteries that not only cost less but also offer greater efficiency and range.
“Investing in more battery R&D ultimately will help us speed the process to deliver more, even better, lower-cost EVs for customers over time,” said Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer Hau Thai-Tang. “We are modernizing Ford’s battery development and manufacturing capabilities so we can better control costs and production variables in-house and scale production around the world with speed and quality.”
On top of the Ford Ion Park, the auto giant will also be investing $185 million USD into a collaborative lab focusing on EV batteries as well. Spanning across 200,000 square feet, the new facility will play a big part in testing new manufacturing methods that can help Ford scale up its production.
Elsewhere in the automotive industry, Tesla has posted its 2021 first-quarter financial results.
