Ford's Affordable EV Comeback Starts Here. But Not Without Controversy
Ford's BlueOval Battery Park represents a comeback, both for Ford and for lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology in America.
If you ask Lisa Drake, the $3 billion construction project about 90 minutes from Detroit doesn't just represent what's next for the Ford Motor Company. It's also a homecoming of sorts.
The project known as the BlueOval Battery Park Michigan will be the first automaker-owned factory in the United States producing automotive lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells—a less-expensive, workhorse type of battery that's now utterly dominated by Chinese companies.
LFP batteries are key to making vastly more affordable future electric vehicles, said Drake, the vice president of Technology Platform Programs and EV Systems for Ford. And the automaker's upcoming factory represents a shot at re-shoring technology.
"It slipped through our grasp to the rest of the world, to battery plants everywhere, but we don't have them," Drake told InsideEVs in an interview ahead of a media tour of the plant Monday. "This is an opportunity for Ford to lead in this space and bring the technology back to the U.S."