Ford Motor Co. is actively hiring at its BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall and on track to start shipping electric vehicle batteries.
The automaker said on June 17 it now employs more than 500 people at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan and plans to reach 800 employees by the end of the year. Ford will ultimately employ 1,700 people at the Marshall plant.
The automaker has received more than 11,500 applications for openings at the facility, wrote Scott Davis, plant manager, business and pack operations at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, in a blog.
Davis said employees largely come from a 45- to 60-mile radius of Marshall, with a significant majority coming from the immediate surrounding areas. More than 70% of team members hail from Marshall, Albion and Battle Creek.
Davis also said: “We are on track to ship electric vehicle batteries in 2026, which will make Ford the first to deliver lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in the U.S. for mainstream consumer automotive use.”
The LFP prismatic batteries will power Ford’s upcoming new midsize electric truck, the first vehicle on Ford’s Universal EV Platform. That vehicle is expected to arrive to market next year priced at about $30,000.
In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said of BlueOval Battery Park Michigan: “This project brings world-class battery technology to our state and positions us to bring even more auto and battery manufacturing back from overseas. Michiganders will build the batteries that power a new generation of affordable electric vehicles, giving consumers more choices while supporting our workers.”
Ford is partnered with CATL in its production at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan. CATL is the world’s leading battery manufacturer located in China.
The site was controversial when it was proposed with some residents opposing the $3.5 billion Ford electric vehicle battery project in Marshall, a small community located just a few miles east of Battle Creek.
But it has started operations and Davis said, “We are past the stage of assembling initial pre-production battery cells. Having met rigorous safety and quality standards at each stage of the process, we are now testing batteries to ensure quality, following CATL’s industry-leading practices for production verification.”
In a statement, Marshall Mayor Scott Wolfersberger said the Ford project is helping the local economy as Ford adds to the workforce. Dozens of homes are being built and hundreds more are planned over the next few years with more than 1,300 new housing units proposed or completed since Ford announced the project in Marshall in early 2023.
Marshall also is the location for Ford’s new business. Last December, Ford announced Ford Energy as a new venture into making battery energy storage systems. Battery energy storage systems are large batteries, some as big as shipping containers, used by utility companies and data centers to store energy for use later to stabilize the power grid and to avoid blackouts.
The reason Ford created Ford Energy was to use the full capacity Ford has at new factories in Kentucky and BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall. Those plants were intended to solely make batteries for electric vehicles, but with EV demand stagnant, Ford had to find a way to fully use the facilities. The plant in Marshall is making EV batteries but will also start making smaller energy storage systems for residential use.
On May 18, Ford Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford, said it signed a five-year “framework agreement” with EDF power solutions North America to make battery energy storage systems for EDF.
(This story has been updated to include new information.)
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ford hiring soars at new BlueOval battery plant in Marshall
Reporting by Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
