Ford's BlueOval SK Battery Park Is Quickly Taking Shape and Changing the Rural Landscape

When complete, the site will be the home of a joint venture between Ford and battery maker SK Innovations. BlueOval SK Battery Park will create 5,000 new jobs and help Ford realize its goal of manufacturing 2 million electric vehicles annually by 2026.

The $5.8 billion 1,500-acre complex will be comprised of two massive battery manufacturing plants with a capacity of producing 80 gigawatt hours annually and a training facility in partnership with Elizabethtown Community and Technical College (ECTC); the BlueOval SK Training Center.

The 42,000-square-foot training center will be the largest co-branded learning center in the Kentucky Community College System courtesy of a $25 million investment from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Construction is slated to begin on the training center next year and be operational in 2024, well ahead of the expected opening of the battery park in 2025.

“The partnership between Kentucky and Ford dates back more than a century, to the very dawn of the automobile industry,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said. “That bond grows even stronger today as we break ground on Ford and SK On’s BlueOval SK Battery Park in Hardin County. As both the largest economic development project in our state’s history and part of the biggest investment ever by Ford, this project cements Kentucky’s status as the electric vehicle battery production capital of the United States.”

Thus far, crews have moved enough soiled to fill 200 American football stadiums, laid enough stone to equal the weight of 1,350 locomotives, and poured enough concrete to fill 356 backyard swimming pools. In addition, 3,300 tons of rebar was used to reinforce the concrete, 1,300 deep foundations were set equalling the height of 60 Empire State Buildings stacked end to end, and crews erected almost 8,000 tons (7.3m kgs) of structural steel.