BlueOval City takes huge step into coming online

BlueOval City has taken a huge step into coming online.

BlueOval SK (BOSK) — the joint venture battery supplier between Ford Motor Co. and South Korean company SK On — has moved into its Stanton facility as it prepares to begin production later this year. While Ford's Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center delayed its launch to 2027, BOSK is full steam ahead to open in 2025 in Haywood County.

Ground was originally broken at the plant in March 2022. The company currently has 1,200 employees total, with 865 in Kentucky and 350 in Tennessee.

Prior to now, the company had been working out of a corporate office in Shelby County in at 5460 Airline Road in Arlington. A newsletter from the company said that it plans to maintain that office while construction is completed.

Construction and equipment installation is underway at the facility as production moves closer. Though the company still has no specific guidance beyond late 2025 for the plant to start producing batteries, it did say that customer orders and market conditions will determine exactly when the batteries start coming off the production line.

When fully online, the BlueOval SK Tennessee site is expected to create 2,500 jobs in the area. BOSK's Kentucky site, which is ahead of the Tennessee site, is currently undergoing a unionization campaign from United Autoworkers (UAW).

It begins the delivery of the largest disclosed development in Tennessee history, with thousands of jobs directly from BOSK and eventually Ford at the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center. All suppliers on site are also finishing their facilities — even those that have yet to disclose their presence — and are also expected to bring on thousands of jobs.

The $5.6 billion BlueOval City was announced in 2021, and the project has moved at rapid pace, with help from a loan from the Department of Energy. The plant is planned to eventually produce a secretive new pickup truck, codenamed Project T3.