Ford to Build 500,000 EV Trucks a Year at Tennessee Plant

The 500,000-truck production target for Tennessee represents a significant step up in manufacturing capacity for the company’s line of pickup trucks, historically among its biggest moneymakers. Last year, Ford built about one million trucks overall at several plants in North America. 

It also comes as other car companies, including crosstown rival

General Motors Co.

and electric-vehicle leader

Tesla Inc.,

are rushing to put out their own battery-powered trucks, filling a market niche that has seen a surge in consumer demand in recent years. 

Ford has twice increased production of the Lightning truck as it has worked to fill a backlog of orders.

The auto maker is investing heavily to build new factories, including those that make batteries, and expand its lineup of electric offerings, pledging to produce two million EVs annually by 2026.

Right now, the expenditures are becoming a drag on the company’s bottom line. On Thursday, Ford said its ambitions to scale EV sales and production led to a $2.1 billion pretax loss in 2022 for its electric-vehicle unit. It projects to post a $3 billion operating loss on its EV business this year.

The 3,600-acre Blue Oval City campus, which includes a battery plant and an auto assembly factory, is core to Ford’s efforts to become the top seller in the electric-vehicle space, a crown long held by Tesla. Together with South Korean battery maker SK On, the two companies are spending $5.6 billion on the complex. 

When fully operational, it will employ about 6,000 people, the company said Friday.

Ford sells two other EVs now: a plug-in commercial van and the Mustang Mach-E SUV. Last year, it sold about 61,000 EVs in the U.S.

Ford has joined with SK to produce batteries for the Lightning truck, as well as the next-generation pickup.

While sales of the F-150 Lightning have been brisk, the car company recently ran into challenges at its factory in Dearborn, Mich., where it makes the truck.

Ford had to suspend production there for five weeks in February and March as it investigated an electric truck that caught fire in a holding lot.

The auto maker said the root cause was an internal battery short circuit that occurred when the vehicle was at a high state of charge. It recalled 18 Lightning trucks with the defective batteries in early March and said the problem was limited to batteries built within a certain time frame.

Ford is among a number of auto makers shelling out billions of dollars to build EV plants and battery factories in the U.S., a trend that has been accelerated by new incentives offered under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Much of that investment is flowing to Southern states such as Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, which have lower energy costs and more turnkey construction sites.

In addition to the complex in Tennessee, Ford is building two battery factories in Kentucky with SK. 

Write to Nora Eckert at nora.eckert@wsj.com

The 500,000-truck production target for Tennessee represents a significant step up in manufacturing capacity for the company’s line of pickup trucks, historically among its biggest moneymakers. Last year, Ford built about one million trucks overall at several plants in North America. 

It also comes as other car companies, including crosstown rival

General Motors Co.

and electric-vehicle leader

Tesla Inc.,

are rushing to put out their own battery-powered trucks, filling a market niche that has seen a surge in consumer demand in recent years. 

Ford has twice increased production of the Lightning truck as it has worked to fill a backlog of orders.

The auto maker is investing heavily to build new factories, including those that make batteries, and expand its lineup of electric offerings, pledging to produce two million EVs annually by 2026.

Right now, the expenditures are becoming a drag on the company’s bottom line. On Thursday, Ford said its ambitions to scale EV sales and production led to a $2.1 billion pretax loss in 2022 for its electric-vehicle unit. It projects to post a $3 billion operating loss on its EV business this year.

The 3,600-acre Blue Oval City campus, which includes a battery plant and an auto assembly factory, is core to Ford’s efforts to become the top seller in the electric-vehicle space, a crown long held by Tesla. Together with South Korean battery maker SK On, the two companies are spending $5.6 billion on the complex. 

When fully operational, it will employ about 6,000 people, the company said Friday.

Ford sells two other EVs now: a plug-in commercial van and the Mustang Mach-E SUV. Last year, it sold about 61,000 EVs in the U.S.

Ford has joined with SK to produce batteries for the Lightning truck, as well as the next-generation pickup.

While sales of the F-150 Lightning have been brisk, the car company recently ran into challenges at its factory in Dearborn, Mich., where it makes the truck.

Ford had to suspend production there for five weeks in February and March as it investigated an electric truck that caught fire in a holding lot.

The auto maker said the root cause was an internal battery short circuit that occurred when the vehicle was at a high state of charge. It recalled 18 Lightning trucks with the defective batteries in early March and said the problem was limited to batteries built within a certain time frame.

Ford is among a number of auto makers shelling out billions of dollars to build EV plants and battery factories in the U.S., a trend that has been accelerated by new incentives offered under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Much of that investment is flowing to Southern states such as Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, which have lower energy costs and more turnkey construction sites.

In addition to the complex in Tennessee, Ford is building two battery factories in Kentucky with SK. 

Write to Nora Eckert at nora.eckert@wsj.com