Dropping bad news around the holidays is a time-honored tradition and Ford is doing just that by revealing their battery plant in Marshall, Michigan will be significantly smaller than originally announced.
As you may recall, Ford revealed plans for BlueOval Battery Park Michigan earlier this year and the plant was scheduled to begin producing lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2026. The facility was slated to employ 2,500 people and have a capacity of approximately 35 GWh.
More: We Aren’t Marshall, Ford Pauses Michigan Battery Plant As UAW Calls Move A Threat
However, it hasn’t been smooth sailing since the plant was announced. Besides sparking a ‘red scare,’ Ford waffled and decided to “pause” work at the site in September. At the time, a spokesperson said “We haven’t made a final decision about the investment there” and the stoppage was designed to ensure the company could be “confident about our ability to competitively run the plant.” The UAW, which was striking at the time, took it as a “shameful, barely veiled threat.”
Fast forward to today and Ford has revealed they’re “re-timing and resizing some investments” including the one in Marshall. While the plant is now moving forward and is still slated to open in 2026, the planned battery capacity has been slashed from 35 GWh to 20 GWh. On top of that, the number of jobs expected to be created has fallen from 2,500 to 1,700. Those are significant cuts and they don’t paint a rosy picture for Ford EV production.
While the company’s press release didn’t say why they pulled back, CNBC quoted Ford’s Mark Truby as saying the automaker looked at “demand and the expected growth for EVs, our business plans, our product cycle plans, the affordability and business to make sure we can make a sustainable business out of this plant. After assessing all that, we are now good to confirm that we’re moving forward with the plant, albeit in a slightly smaller size and scope than what we originally announced.”
