Production of Ford Motor Company’s electric next-generation pickup truck at its new West Tennessee plant will be delayed until 2027, the company announced Wednesday.
Construction on the new campus continues, and the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center where the truck will be manufactured still plans to employ 3,000 workers, a Ford spokesperson confirmed. The campus’ battery plant — a joint venture between Ford and SK — will make up the remaining jobs needed to fulfill Ford’s promise that the campus would create 5,800 jobs. Tennessee lawmakers approved nearly $1 billion for the $5.6 billion project three years ago.
A spokesperson said Ford remains confident it will meet requirements set in that incentives deal.
“West Tennessee is a linchpin in our plan to create a strong and growing Ford in America. BlueOval City will be one of the most advanced manufacturing complexes anywhere in the world, and we are counting on the workforce in West Tennessee to produce advanced batteries starting next year, and then our most innovative pickup ever starting in 2027,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said in an emailed statement.
The postponement decision is part of a shift in the Michigan automaker’s electric vehicle strategy, which will scrap plans for an all-electric three-row SUV and prioritize hybrid vehicles. The company will reduce its yearly capital expenditures for pure electric vehicles from 40 percent to about 30 percent, according to a Wednesday news release.
When Ford announced its plans for the BlueOval City campus in Stanton in 2021, the company set an initial production goal in 2025.
Dimming electric vehicle market may delay start of full production at Ford’s new West Tenn. plant
But a down-shift in electric vehicle demand and swelling market competition pushed Ford to reassess, the company stated.
Ford will now focus its electric vehicle efforts “where it has competitive advantages,” with plans to roll out production on a new all-electric commercial van in 2026 in Ohio, followed by a mid-sized pickup truck designed by Ford’s California skunkworks team, and the next-generation pickup, to be assembled at BlueOval City’s Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center in 2027.
Talk of a delay at BlueOval has been swirling since early June amid slowing demand for electric vehicles, including the company’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. In late 2023, Ford CFO John Lawler said the company’s electric vehicle unit was on track to lose $1.3 billion that year.
Pushing back the timeline allows Ford to implement lower-cost battery technology in the next-generation pickup to make it more price-competitive, the release states.
Lower-cost battery production is a major underpinning of Ford’s revised strategy to make their new electric vehicles profitable within the first 12 months of launch. In Kentucky, BlueOval SK will begin manufacturing batteries for Ford’s E-Transit and F-150 Lightning in mid-2025.
BlueOval SK at BlueOval City in Tennessee will begin producing cells in late 2025 for the new electric commercial van slated for production at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant. Those batteries will also be used in the next-generation electric truck when it production begins in 2027.
Ford also aims to move some Mustang Mach-E battery production from Poland to Michigan in 2025 to take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act benefits, according to the release. Plans are on track to produce Lithium iron-phosphate batteries at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in 2026.
The shift toward hybrid technology for its planned three-row SUVs will mean a “special non-cash charge of about $400 million for the write-down of certain product-specific manufacturing assets” for the now-scrapped all-electric SUVs. Other expenses resulting from the shift could total up to $1.5 billion (which will be reflected as “special items” when they are incurred).
Ford stated the company will provide an update in the first half of 2025 on its electrification, technology, profitability, and capital requirements.
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