Ford to design electric vehicle batteries

Ford announced Tuesday it will open a facility in Michigan to design, test and perform small-scale manufacturing of vehicle batteries with an emphasis on fully electric vehicles.

The company said in a news release that a 200,000-square-foot facility would open in southeast Michigan late next year and would focus on “developing, testing and building vehicle battery cells and cell arrays.”

“We are creating new tools and solutions we need for a carbon-free, affordable and better future,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer. “We are modernizing Ford’s battery development and manufacturing capabilities so we can better control costs and production variables in-house and scale production around the world with speed and quality.”

“We’re already scaling production of all-electric vehicles around the world as more customers experience and crave the fun-to-drive benefits of electric vehicles with zero emissions,” he added.

The facility is expected to cost $185 million to construct, and will be used by the company to develop new manufacturing techniques that Ford will scale to production at its other plants.

Ford announced a $29 billion investment in electric vehicle and autonomous driving technology in February, with $22 billion going to electric vehicle development specifically.

“The transformation of Ford is happening and so is our leadership of the EV revolution and development of autonomous driving,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the time.