Ford Scales Back EV Ambitions - Cuts Investment Plan In Michigan Battery Plant

Ford Motor Company F said it is right-sizing its BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall.

"While we remain bullish on our long-term strategy for electric vehicles, we are re-timing and resizing some investments," the company said in a statement.

Ford said in February it is investing $3.5 billion to build this LFP battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. This wholly owned subsidiary is part of Ford's $50 billion+ global push to lead the EV revolution. 

The facility will now create more than 1,700 jobs to produce a planned capacity of approximately 20 GWh. However, the unit originally planned to engage 2,500 workers when it was announced in February.

The unit will now produce enough batteries to power about 230,000 EVs a year, down from a prior plan of 400,000, according to a news report by Bloomberg.

"We still expect BlueOval Battery Park Michigan to be the first of Ford's battery plants of this kind when it begins producing LFP battery cells starting in 2026," the company said.

The cutbacks are part of Ford's reduction of its EV strategy, which includes delaying $12 billion in spending on battery-powered models, the Bloomberg note added. 

Ford previously dumped plans to build 2 million EVs annually by the end of 2026 and now won't say when it expects to reach that milestone, the report read.

EV adoption "is not growing at the pace that I think ourselves or the industry had expected," Mark Truby, Ford's chief communications officer, told reporters in a briefing Tuesday, noted by Bloomberg.

Truby stated that Ford's overall investment in the plant, initially estimated at $3.5 billion, will decrease by the same proportion as the capacity reduction, reducing the total expenditure to approximately $2 billion, the report read.

"Labor cost was one of the factors we were looking at," Truby said, which Bloomberg noted. "We now have some certainty there."

Price Action: F shares are trading lower by 1.79% to $10.15 on the last check Tuesday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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