Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear joined community and business leaders Wednesday in officially opening a new facility in Glendale that will train employees of the new BlueOval SK electric vehicle battery plant.
More than 700 people have already been hired for the first battery plant, which is on track to open in 2025 with 2,500 employees. The second factory is still under construction, but there is no timeline for when it will open.
BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and Korean partner SK On, is on track to start making batteries for Ford and Lincoln EVs next year, BlueOval SK CEO Michael Adams said last month.
The $5.8 billion pair of battery plants under construction about 45 miles south of Louisville represent the biggest economic development project in Kentucky history.
The training at the new facility — a 24,000-square-foot satellite campus for Elizabethtown Community & Technical College — will encompass battery knowledge, proprietary manufacturing processes and more.
BlueOval SK is hiring from the high school to college level, and many of its future operators, technicians and engineers will be trained here. The company will pay its employees while they learn the skills for the job.
EVs are a growing portion of the auto market, but the pace hasn’t matched automakers’ expectations. That has led Ford and other carmakers to push back some of their EV ambitions. Ford last year indefinitely delayed the start of production at the second of the two EV battery plants in Kentucky as part of a plan to put off about $12 billion in EV-related investments. It has also delayed production of a planned three-row EV and a new all-electric pickup, while reducing the number of F-150 Lightning EV trucks made at its plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
The training center will model different aspects of the plants, an opportunity changing lives and putting the commonwealth center stage for EVs.
If you are interested in learning more about available positions at the plant, click here.
Source: WDRB
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