Ford will “definitely” continue to collaborate with SK Innovation even after it begins making its own batteries, a company executive said.
Darren Palmer, general manager of Ford’s battery electric vehicles division, said at Chicago Auto Show 2021 that the US autogiant will definitely continue its collaboration with SK Innovation even after 2025.
In May, the pair announced that would form a joint venture called Blue Oval SK. The companies will spend 6 trillion won in total for the venture to build a 60GWh capacity battery factory in the US.
Meanwhile, SK Innovation is currently building two factories in Georgia in the US.
The planes will manufacture NCM9 batteries that will be used in Ford’s pickup truck F-150 Lighting. The pickup truck is planned to launch in the second quarter next year at the earliest.
Ford is aiming to secure 240GWh of battery cells by 2030. It is planning to launch over 10 models of electric vehicles in China in 2022. It said it plans to have all the cars it sells in Europe be electric cars by 2030.
The US autogiant is also planning to manufacture its own batteries. It is planning to spend US$185 million to construct a research center at Michigan. The center will handle R&D for battery cell production. It is planned to be completed near end of 2022.
