Ten months after 1,500 workers in Hardin County lost their jobs at Ford’s electric vehicle battery plant, hiring has begun at the automaker’s next venture.
Ford Motor Company's new subsidiary, Ford Energy, is investing $2 billion into the production of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Hardin County. The site was once home to BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and a South Korean partner which built electric vehicles batteries.
Market conditions and national policies shuttered the mega factory only six months into production.
The new Ford Energy unit will build shipping container-sized lithium iron phosphate (LFP) prismatic batteries for data centers, utilities, and other industrial customers, targeting at least 20 GWh of annual output by late 2027.
Tony Reinhart, director of state and local government affairs for Ford, spoke to the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday about the automaker’s pivot to energy storage.
“We’ve done this for centuries, whether it was during wars or other times. During COVID, we made masks and other things," Reinhart said. "We’re here to be something more than just an automotive company.”
Reinhart said battery energy storage systems are already being produced in other countries, and as an automaker that keeps 80% percent of its business in America, he said Ford wants to bring that production back to the U.S. He added the American power grid needs storage faster than the nation can produce it and estimated three to fours years of backup demand.
Ford Energy plans to hire 2,100 workers at the 1,500-acre campus in Glendale, which includes a four-million-square-foot facility that will house the new energy operation.
About 200 management roles have been filled and most production operators will be hired in early 2027 for the Glendale plant. Job openings can be found online at fordenergy.com.
"It's been a gut punch for ten months, but in the next 12 to 18 months, there's some good things coming," said Andy Games, president of the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation. "It's not a joint venture anymore. It's Ford Motor Company and Ford knows what they're doing."
