Construction is on track at Ford’s new BlueOval City campus in West Tennessee, where EV production is to begin in 2025.

It sounds like quite a place—Ford and battery partner SK On plan to invest $5.6 billion and create 6,000 new jobs at the 3,600-acre campus, which will include a vehicle assembly plant, a battery plant and an on-site supplier park. Ford says it will use carbon-free electricity, carbon-free heat recovered from the site’s utility infrastructure and geothermal system, and a water-saving utility system.

“BlueOval City is the blueprint for Ford’s electric future around the world,” said Executive Chair Bill Ford. “We will build revolutionary electric vehicles at an advanced manufacturing site that works in harmony with the planet, aligning business growth and innovation with environmental progress.”

Ford says BlueOval City will be capable of producing 500,000 electric trucks a year at full production. One of these will be Ford’s second-generation electric truck, code named Project T3. No details of the new vehicle are on offer yet, but Ford is teasing a big step forward from its successful F-150 Lightning electric pickup.

“PJ O’Rourke once described American pickups as ‘a back porch with an engine attached.’ Well, this new truck is going to be like the Millennium Falcon—with a back porch attached,” said CEO Jim Farley. “The manufacturing process will be equally breakthrough, with radical simplicity, cost efficiency and quality technology that will make BlueOval City the modern-day equivalent of Henry Ford’s Rouge factory.”

Ford says BlueOval City will have a 30 percent smaller general assembly footprint than traditional plants, but higher production capacity.

To prepare tomorrow’s workers for jobs at BlueOval City, Ford is introducing BlueOval Learning, a talent development program designed to strengthen skills, provide teacher support and increase work-based learning experiences.

Source: Ford