Ford's Blue Oval City reaches key milestone. What's next for the $5.6 billion project?

[AzScorpion]

Ford's Blue Oval City has broke ground and is expected to be completed by 2025. The 4,100 acre site will produce electric truck and vehicle batteries. It's nice to see this being built right here in the USA!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fords-blue-oval-city-reaches-171408960.html

Ford’s Blue Oval City entered the land prepping phase this week with a couple hundred workers now onsite daily in Stanton. It marks a key milestone ahead of formal construction on the electric truck and battery plant set to begin later this year.

Ford hired Walbridge, a Detroit-based contractor, as the project’s lead construction firm. Greg Christensen, who is Ford's Electric Vehicle Footprint director, said in a previous interview the plan is for 6,000 construction workers to be onsite each day at the project’s peak.

Ford officials, along with South Korean company SK innovation, announced plans in September for a $5.6 billion project to produce electric trucks and electric vehicle batteries at a 4,100-acre site in Stanton. The project is expected to create about 5,800 jobs. Onsite production is expected to begin in 2025.

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[AdamHarris]

Yes Sir pretty awesome.

 

[AzScorpion]

Yes Sir pretty awesome.

IIRC you're pretty close to it? Must be nice to see this take off from the ground up.

 

[AdamHarris]

Yes I’m in Jackson 35 miles from the site. I drove over there several months ago before they had started and I need to go back over there again and check it out.

 

[AzScorpion]

Yes I’m in Jackson 35 miles from the site. I drove over there several months ago before they had started and I need to go back over there again and check it out.

Nice. If you think of it take some pictures and post them here, it would be nice to see them. These are from the article but it's always nice to see others as it progresses.

 

[Joeiconic]

Wow, 5800 jobs created. That’s great news for the region.

 

[NotBudule]

I hope they build E Rangers there , that should have been the first E truck , not that Rivian With the worst front end ever... Ranger E. E Ranger not sure what to name it but if they build it , I will come... (Both spellings)...

 

[AzScorpion]

Some updates on the new Blue Oval site.

https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis...utm_source=sy&utm_medium=nsyp&utm_campaign=yh

The May 25 meeting, hosted by Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development's rural division, featured updates on the project from Kel Kearns, Blue Oval City’s chief engineer of development and launch.

Kearns has done this before

Kearns has a deep well of experience in getting large production sites online for Ford, where he has worked for nearly 30 years. The Australian-born engineer has mostly worked at Ford’s large production sites throughout Asia.

Kearns' production site launch work includes a large plant in Sanand, India. He's also served as general manager of the Changan Ford plant in Hangzhou, China, which is Ford’s largest production site outside of Detroit. And most recently, Kearns served as president and CEO of Auto Alliance Co., a joint venture between Ford and Mazda.

“[Ford] asked me to do [Blue Oval City] because in India I did a very similar role, in that case leading the construction, hiring, and launch,” Kearns said at the Brownsville meeting. "Then, I ran that facility for about a year after production. I’m looking forward to the challenges [here]. There'll be a few bumps in the road, but we'll navigate through those together.”

Kearns will be living and working in Tennessee for the entirety of the project. He just moved to Memphis a few weeks ago and joked about getting his social security card just a day prior to the event.


Environmental aspects of Blue Oval City

Kearns also spoke about the environmental impact of the Ford plant.

“In this day and age, it's all about being environmentally friendly,” Kearns said. “It's a zero-waste-to-landfill facility. We're building electric vehicles. There's a whole lot of technology in and around what has been built and launched that is leading in terms of protecting the environment.”

For instance, when the plant is operational, painting operations will be “fully controlled using emission concentrators and regenerative thermal oxidizers” so that there will be “no uncontrolled exhausts from any painting operations,” according to slides on Ford’s presentation.

Blue Oval City timeline, and possible expansion

Kearns shared a project timeline, which has five major milestones:

• Q2 2022: Ground clearing begins
• Q3 2022: Construction begins
• Q3 2023: Peak construction employment
• Q3 2024: TCAT Training Center opens
• 2025: Assembly operations begin

Blue Oval City may not be fully done when operations begin. Kearns said Ford is still figuring out the output of its facility, but plans have to be locked down soon as construction approaches.

“The actual design of the facility has to be frozen within weeks' time, so it's very interesting,” Kearns said. “Capacity planning in the automotive business is very hard. It's a bit of a crystal ball, and we always get it wrong. It’s either too many or not enough.”

Kearns said that the company is focused on getting the initial site built, staffed with two shifts (and later three shifts “running around the clock”), and production maximized out of the initial facility.

But the site has room for expansion.

“The world changes very fast, and four years from now, the world will have changed a few times, and we need to adjust our plans as we move along,” Kearns said. "My process is to continue to forecast and continue to figure out what the demand is going to be and adjust those plans as we move forward. If that means commencing an expansion plan in parallel almost immediately, that's a possibility; or delaying any expansion as we fully utilize the facility that we're putting in place. That remains to be seen.”

 

[AdamHarris]

Not much to see here but you’ll have to take my word for it; say hi to Blue Oval City. Surprisingly no “future home of” sign but you drive along the site on this road for over 2.5 miles! Times a changin for our lil area.

 

[AzScorpion]

Here's the newest update of the BlueOval city complex. Seems to be going as planned and I really like the agreement between the city and Ford. Most cities just give away tax breaks and get nothing back. Here they (Ford) has to create at least 5,800 jobs over 10 years to get the tax incentives.

https://fordauthority.com/2022/07/ford-blueoval-city-construction-on-schedule-working-out-logistics/

In addition to this progress, Tennessee state officials are speaking with officials in surrounding states in regards to securing enough skilled workers to fully staff the site when it’s ready to open. While the state will provide $275 million over the next 30 years to help fund the project, Ford must also create at least 5,800 full-time jobs over the next 10 years to receive that tax incentive.

 

[AzScorpion]

Work has been picking up at the Blue Oval sight and is expected to more than double by 2023. This is going to be a huge bonus for Ford and also the state for jobs once it's completed.

https://fordauthority.com/2022/07/ford-blueoval-city-will-double-worker-headcount-by-2023/

Currently, there are less than 1,000 workers at BlueOval City working on its construction, though the land hasn’t been cleared completely just yet. However, the site’s prime contractor – Walbridge – says that this number will double by October, with 5,500 workers on site by next summer as physical structures begin to rise from the dirt. By September, Walbridge says that passers-by to be able to see steel skeletons on the currently bare land.

“If you drove by the site four months ago, it would’ve looked the same as it had in the past,” said Chris Morgan, Walbridge vice president of operations. “Farm fields. Trees. Majority of the site has been cleared, and the dirt is getting moved around and balanced. There’s a lot going on.

 

[Synfulz]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/ford-construction-billion-tennessee-electric-truck-factory

 

[9zero1790]

so this is where the money for the blue oval plastic emblems went. thanks ford.

 

[myothercarizahearse]

that's what I was thinking about hood struts and extra bed tie downs

 

[9zero1790]

and my head rests! ?

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