[Exclusive] BlueOval SK’s Kentucky plant to start production in 1st half of 2025: official

BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Korean battery maker SK On and US automaker Ford, will begin mass production of batteries at its first plant in Glendale, Kentucky, in the first half of next year, a company official said Wednesday.

“We are very excited about Kentucky 1 going online, the first of our three plants,” said Keli McAlister, external affairs director at BlueOval SK in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul.

“There’s a lot of moving parts in a project this large. Four million square feet (371,610 square meters) is a large facility but we do believe it will be (up and running) in the first half of 2025.”

In 2022, SK On and Ford established BlueOval SK with a $11.4 billion investment to build three battery plants in the United States -- two at the Kentucky site and one in Stanton, Tennessee -- to supply batteries for the latter’s electric vehicles.

In April, Ford announced it would postpone rolling out new electric pickup trucks and a new three-row electric sports utility vehicle amid the slower-than-anticipated EV growth in the US. However, BlueOval SK has maintained that Kentucky 1 will begin production in 2025 without mentioning any detailed dates.

McAlister’s comments marked the first time for a company official to give a more specific timeline for the beginning of production at Kentucky 1.

“We remain on schedule,” said McAlister. “Of course, we’re business. We’re going to monitor the market, but we believe we will begin production in 2025 as soon as construction is complete at Kentucky 1 … We’ve begun equipment installation at Kentucky 1.”

The second plant in Glendale, Kentucky 2, currently has no targeted date for the beginning of production. The BlueOval SK official underscored that the facility “will be ready when the market demand reaches it” and start producing batteries faster than anyone as its construction continues.

US media outlets reported last week that Ford is considering Shelbyville, Kentucky, for a $400 million car parts factory that will mainly focus on crafting EV components, showing the willingness of SK On’s partner to bolster EV supply chain in the southeastern state. Ford sold 44,180 EVs in the first half of this year, up 72 percent on year.

According to McAlister, the Tennessee plant’s construction will be completed in the second half of next year and production will begin then.

“I think (EV) projections have been different than reality, and I think that’s disappointing to people but we remain steadfast,” she said. “We know electric vehicles are the future and we’re poised to be part of that market.”

The $5.8 billion dual plant project in Kentucky is the single largest economic development in the state’s history. The first and second plants in Glendale will have an annual production of 37 gigawatt-hours and 45 GWh, respectively, once they operate at full capacity. Combined with the Tennessee plant’s annual capacity of 45 GWh, BlueOval SK will be able to supply 127 GWh per year, which would be enough to power about 1.6 million high-performance EVs.

As BlueOval SK’s ultimate goal is to create 2,500 jobs at each of the three battery plants, McAlister noted that there are just over a thousand employees: about 700 in Kentucky and 300 in Tennessee.

“We want our workforce to reflect the community,” she said. “So about 80 percent of our employees will be local hires. That’s our goal … There are specific jobs that require specific skills so we have to look for those that meet those requirements and we’ve been lucky to find them.”