Ford scraps plans for electric pickup at BlueOval City, turns to gas-powered truck models

The Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center at Ford’s BlueOval City in Stanton, Tennessee will be renamed “Tennessee Truck Plant” to reflect the site’s switch to gas-powered truck production, with manufacturing beginning in 2029. (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson)

Ford Motor Company is scrapping plans to manufacture a next-generation electric pickup truck at BlueOval City in West Tennessee, looking instead to gas-powered pickup trucks with more stable paths to profit.

The auto manufacturer will begin producing gas-powered Built Ford Tough truck models at its renamed Tennessee Truck Plant in 2029, according to a Monday news release. The facility was previously called the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center. 

“Ford no longer plans to produce select larger electric vehicles where the business case has eroded due to lower-than-expected demand, high costs and regulatory changes,” the release states. 

The pivot follows an announcement that Ford and SK On will end their joint U.S. battery factory venture, BlueOval SK. 

The joint venture launched in 2021 to build three battery plants: two in Kentucky and one at Ford’s BlueOval City site in Stanton. SK On will own and operate the Tennessee battery plant on Ford’s campus, and a Ford subsidiary will take full ownership of the Kentucky plants. SK On stated it would maintain a strategic relationship with Ford, as the Tennessee battery plant is located on Ford’s campus.

“This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley stated in the release. “The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities: Ford Pro, our market-leading trucks and vans, hybrids and high-margin opportunities like our new battery energy storage business.”

Plans at BlueOval City, a $5.6 billion campus located on about 3,300 acres of former farmland, have shifted significantly since the manufacturing plant was announced in 2021.

The company originally planned to produce a new all-electric, next-generation pickup truck beginning in 2025. But slowing demand and the rollback of federal electric vehicle funding and tax credits pushed that date out twice — first to 2027 and then to 2028 as Ford began to focus on smaller, more affordable electric models and hybrids. 

Ford received nearly $1 billion in state economic incentives for the massive campus, contingent on the company creating 5,760 direct new jobs on the site over a 10-year period. The manufacturing plant is expected to employ 3,000 of those workers, with the remainder employed by the battery plant.

Ford delays mass production of electric truck at BlueOval City until 2028

Ford announced a $2 billion investment in its Kentucky manufacturing plant in August, converting the plant to produce smaller electric vehicles. The first vehicle from the company’s new Universal EV Platform will be a mid-sized pickup truck assembled at the Louisville plant starting in 2027.

“The company is shifting to higher-return opportunities, including leveraging its U.S. manufacturing footprint to add trucks and vans to its lineup and launch a new, high-growth battery energy storage business,” the release states.

Ford will turn its focus to producing a range of hybrids and extended range electric vehicles — electric vehicles that also feature combustion engines that act as generators to recharge the vehicle’s battery, extending range for long trips. The company expects about half of its global volume will be hybrids, extended-range electric vehicles and fully electric vehicles by 2030.

Plans have also changed for the next-generation F-150 Lightning, which will now be an extended-range electric vehicle produced in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford also scrapped plans to produce a new electric commercial van for Europe, and will switch to producing affordable gas and hybrid commercial vans in North America, to be manufactured in Ohio.