Glendale, Ky.–As the second battery plant begins to take shape and hiring hourly-workers has begun for the 5,000 jobs being created at the two plants, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear today joined BlueOval SK executives to tour BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale.
Progress has continued since workers installed the first structural beam for the second plant on June 12; that day alone, they installed 77 pieces.
The Governor also visited the park in December 2022 when Ford and SK On celebrated construction progress at the battery park, where their joint venture – BlueOval SK – has invested $5.8 billion to produce advanced batteries for future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles, or EVs, slated to start production in 2025.
“It is wonderful to watch Team Kentucky move forward on a project that cemented our status as the EV battery production capital of the United States,” Gov. Beshear said. “We are thankful to everyone at BlueOval SK and the nearly 2,600 construction workers onsite who have made significant construction progress, bringing Ford closer to its target of producing an annual run rate of 2 million electric vehicles globally by the end of 2026.”
“People are the most important part of BlueOval SK,” BlueOval SK Human Resources Director Neva Burke said. “We’re excited to electrify the future and create 5,000 good-paying jobs in Kentucky.”
Construction at BlueOval SK Battery Park Remains on Schedule
Construction is on schedule at the two massive battery manufacturing facilities that will be capable of collectively producing more than 80 gigawatt hours annually. When completed, BlueOval SK’s two battery plants at the site will each measure approximately 4 million square feet each.
Significant progress has been made at the 2.3-square-mile battery manufacturing campus.
Already, crews have:
- Moved 6.8 million cubic yards of earth;
- Placed 257,000 cubic yards of concrete;
- Erected 44,000 tons of steel, equal to the weight of nearly 200 Statues of Liberty;
- Installed 2.8 million square feet of roofing, enough to cover 48 football fields; and
- Installed 535,000 square feet of exterior siding.
In April 2023, Gov. Beshear joined officials from Elizabethtown Community and Technical College (ECTC), BlueOval SK and Ford Motor Co. to officially break ground on the ECTC BlueOval SK Training Center in Glendale.
BlueOval SK Battery Park will train 5,000 new workers at this new training center, located on the 1,500-acre BlueOval SK Battery Park site.
The training center is the only co-branded learning facility within the Kentucky Community College System and represents a $25 million investment by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The curriculum within the 42,000-square-foot training facility will support battery knowledge, roles and skills. BlueOval SK will train employees in SK On’s proprietary technical, quality and manufacturing processes in the ECTC BlueOval SK Training Center’s virtual reality labs, industrial maintenance lab, work simulation lab and ergonomics techniques classrooms. ECTC BlueOval SK Training Center is scheduled to be completed in 2024.