Ford to transform EV battery crops to make battery storage for information facilities

Ford is leaping into the battery vitality storage enterprise, betting that booming demand from information facilities and the electrical grid can take in the EV battery capability it says it’s not utilizing.

To attain this, Ford plans to repurpose its present EV battery manufacturing capability in Glendale, Kentucky, right into a devoted hub for manufacturing battery vitality storage methods.

Ford pivots from EVs to battery storage for information facilities

Ford says it’ll make investments about $2 billion over the subsequent two years to scale the brand new enterprise. The Kentucky website will likely be transformed to construct superior battery vitality storage methods bigger than 5 megawatt-hours, together with LFP prismatic cells, BESS modules, and 20-foot DC container methods — the type of {hardware} more and more utilized by information facilities, utilities, and large-scale industrial corporations.

The corporate plans to convey preliminary manufacturing on-line inside 18 months, leaning on its manufacturing expertise and licensed battery expertise. By late 2027, Ford expects the enterprise to deploy a minimum of 20 gigawatt-hours of vitality storage yearly.

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The transfer follows a three way partnership disposition settlement reached final week between Ford, SK On, SK Battery America, and BlueOval SK. Beneath the settlement, a Ford subsidiary will independently personal and function the Kentucky battery crops, whereas SK On will absolutely personal and function the Tennessee battery plant.

Ford can be planning a separate vitality storage play in Michigan. At BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall, the corporate will produce smaller amp-hour LFP prismatic cells for residential vitality storage methods. That plant is on monitor to start manufacturing in 2026, and it’ll additionally provide batteries for Ford’s upcoming midsize electrical truck — the primary mannequin constructed on the corporate’s new Common EV Platform.

Electrek’s Take

General, the shift displays Ford’s broader push towards what it calls “higher-return alternatives.” Alongside taking a step backward so as to add extra gas-powered vans and vans to its US manufacturing footprint, Ford says it’ll now not produce some bigger EVs, such because the Lightning F-150the place softer demand and better prices are ensuing from the shortage of help for EVs by the Trump administration. (Batteries produced on the Glendale plant have been for the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning. The most effective-selling electrical truck within the US in Q3, earlier than the federal tax credit score expired, was the Ford F-150 Lightning, with 10,005 EVs bought, a 39.7% year-over-year improve.)

With tax credit eradicated and regulatory uncertainty, Ford is pivoting to adjoining markets, together with grid-scale and residential vitality storage, to maintain its battery crops operating and justify billions in sunk funding.

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