Ford has announced the launch of a new battery development based in Michigan this is the first step toward Ford building their own batteries.
Ford Ion-Park the “global battery centre of excellence” will be a research and development facility for Ford’s own electric vehicle batteries.
A team of 150 experts have been employed to work on long range and long lasting EV batteries these are also being developed to be environmentally friendly.
The new Ford facility will not however be developing at scale and an alternative assembly area is yet to be provided.
Ford has yet to disclose a timeline on launching their own battery production line, neither have they disclosed on whether they will build a new factory to house the manufacturing.
Strong competition will be faced, from the likes of Tesla with the Gigafactory’s popping up around the globe.
“It’s really for us to develop that expertise and competency in house and give us that flexibility in the future,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s chief platform and operations officer.
Ford is still in the exceedingly early stages of its electric vehicle transition however they have announced set dates for this transition to complete.
They are expecting to spend $22 billion on the shift to an entirely electric powered fleet.
Ford are also expected to be investing heavily in autonomous vehicles already announcing $7 billion to this area.
Of course, the Mustang Mach E has just hit the shelves, with the GT version being announced for later this year.
There will be rewards in moving to an electric fleet, included in that will be the ability to sell cars in the UK following 2035.
