Soon after the U.S. Department of Energy granted BlueOval SK its largest single federal investment ever made in the automotive industry, officials from the federal agency visited the Stanton site last week.
U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk and DOE’s Loan Program Officer Director Jigar Shah toured Ford and SK On’s $5.6 billion BlueOval City campus on Thursday while meeting with the project’s leaders and executives along with local elected officials.
Their visit followed the DOE’s Loan Programs Office conditionally granting BlueOval SK a loan of up to $9.2 billion on June 22. Ford Motor Co. and South Korean company SK On finalized the BlueOval SK joint venture in 2022 to produce batteries for future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles at the three plants including BlueOval City in Stanton.
“Super excited to get a chance to come here and see the magnitude of what we are talking about here … and it’s super cool to see the facility and everything going up really quickly,” Turk said. “Really impressive to see the pace and the scale and most exciting part for me is all the quality jobs that are being done by union folks on construction sites of things and quality jobs we hope that will be enduring in this community.”
Construction at BlueOval City is expected to reach its peak this summer with nearly 6,000 construction workers on-site each day in Stanton, about 40 miles away from Memphis. Production is scheduled to begin at BlueOval City in 2025.
BlueOval SK’s three plants specifically are expected to create a total of approximately 5,000 constructions jobs in Tennessee and Kentucky, along with 7,500 operations jobs once the plants are up and running. In Tennessee, the battery plant will have about 2,500 employees, while the electric vehicle plant will have about 3,300 employees.
The DOE said BlueOval SK falls in line with President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda, which includes the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Turk credited the legislation in part to help spur public-private partnerships such as BlueOval SK and the DOE.
“To me, it’s all providing a wind at the back of these kinds of partnerships with BOSK, with Ford, SK, and it’s public-private, it’s the federal government with our tools supporting the local community so I think this is a phenomenal example of partnership,” Turk said.
Shah did not share many specifics on the conditions attached to BlueOval SK’s loan but mentioned the DOE wants “to make sure these projects are built right the first time” and credited the joint venture’s commitment to community engagement during the process.