Advancing Memphis: BlueOval City workforce to drive region's fortunes

The $5.6 billion BlueOval City project in Haywood County is expected to bring nearly 6,000 new jobs to the region from Ford Motor Co. and BlueOval SK (BOSK), plus thousands more at an on-site supplier park.

BlueOval City is being built in Stanton, a town of fewer than 1,000 people about 40 miles from Downtown Memphis. The largest economic development project in state history features two major components: the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center (TEVC), where Ford plans to produce Project T3, its next-generation all-electric truck; and BOSK, a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On to produce EV batteries.

BOSK said it plans to be ready to begin operations in late 2025. Ford announced in August that it’s delaying the launch of Project T3 until the second half of 2027.

A $60 million Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) on campus at BlueOval City officially opened this year to train employees on the advanced manufacturing and other skills they’ll need to work at TEVC and BOSK. The “TCAT of the Future” is designed to be flexible and expandable so that it can serve Ford’s immediate needs as the operation launches and to accommodate potential but unknowable capabilities as the EV industry and technology evolves.

The long-term vision is that the Stanton campus can catalyze the region with a multiplier effect of economic and population growth.