Ford Trims Investment and Job Output in Marshall Battery Plant

Ford has announced it will scale back its initial investment in its proposed electric vehicle (EV) battery facility in the Marshall area. The revised plans signify a decrease of 800 jobs and a reduction in capital investment of over $1 billion. This adjustment is expected to reduce the plant’s manufacturing output by approximately 40%.

Despite these changes, Ford, headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, plans to continue the construction work that had been put on hold for two months. The automaker remains dedicated to its aim of inaugurating the plant by 2026, according to a company spokesperson.

This updated plan marks a significant departure from Ford’s initial commitment to create 2,500 jobs and invest $3.5 billion, as previously announced by the automaker and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Ford spokesperson Mark Truby disclosed that the state will most likely decrease the nearly $1.8 billion it had pledged in taxpayer subsidies for this large-scale project, reflecting the company’s reduced commitment.

“We’ve been studying this project for the past couple of months. I think we’re all aware EV adoption is growing, and we expect that to continue, actually. But it’s not growing at the pace that I think ourselves and the industry had expected.”

Mark Truby via Detroit Free Press

Truby also explained that Ford had originally planned for the facility to produce 35 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries each year, enough to power approximately 400,000 vehicles. However, with the new proposal, the company predicts the plant’s production will decrease to around 20 GWh annually — a reduction of about 42% — which equates to enough batteries for 230,000 vehicles.

The battery plant, situated near Michigan Avenue and 13 Mile Road, forms a small section of the extensive acreage that Ford owns just west of Marshall, a quaint town located around 35 miles east of Kalamazoo. The automaker is now planning to utilize less space on this site.

Although concrete figures were not provided by Truby about the exact cut from the initial $3.5 billion investment, he confirmed that the decrease would correlate with the drop in production. A 42% reduction suggests a cut nearly amounting to $1.5 billion, bringing down the total investment to $2 billion.

Despite the reduced commitment from Ford, both Governor Whitmer’s office and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the agency that manages incentives for these types of large projects, emphasized Ford’s continuing plans to invest in the site rather than focusing on the cutbacks.