Ford said the two plants combined would produce the equivalent of 60 gigawatt hours of electricity per year
Following the announcement of its new joint venture built in collaboration with SK Innovations, Ford’s new venture BlueOpalSK is now reportedly planning to build two battery plants in North America to achieve its target of producing batteries for 600,000 EVs per year by mid-decade.
As per a report by the Associated Press, Ford said the two plants combined would produce the equivalent of 60 gigawatt hours of electricity per year. That’s equal to batteries for 600,000 Mustang Mach E extended range SUVs, which can go about 300 miles per charge.
The company sees strong demand for EVs, predicting that its annual demand for energy in North America will be as high as 140 gigawatt hours per year by 2030, equaling the output of four to five battery factories.
Ford had earlier said that its global BEV plan calls for at least 240 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cell capacity by 2030 – roughly 10 plants’ worth of capacity.
Ford is further expanding its presence in the EV battery market by investing in Solid Power, a producer of all-solid-state batteries for EVs. Initially investing in Solid Power in 2019, Ford is making an additional equity investment to help accelerate further development of solid-state vehicle battery technology, contributing to a $130 million Series B investment round in which the BMW Group becomes an equal equity owner with Ford.
