- Ford could soon become America’s EV battery supplier.
- The brand’s joint venture with BlueOval SK leaves a significant overcapacity of battery cells that otherwise wouldn’t have a home.
- BlueOval SK’s CEO anticipate Ford will use this excess inventory to supply other corporate customers like automakers and energy storage companies.
Ford’s business model has been largely the same for more than a century: build a car, sell the car, rinse and repeat. Now, in the age of the electric car, things are a bit more complicated—there are software-defined cars that make after-sale subscriptions possible, corporate fleets and a potential new avenue of selling the batteries that power the EVs and hybrids that roam America’s streets.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Ford’s battery joint venture, BlueOval SK (a tie-up between Ford and SK On), is considering turning its sprawling battery investments into a standalone revenue stream. That means taking the excess capacity produced in its factories and selling them off to other automakers, grid storage providers and anybody with a big enough checkbook. Basically, Ford is becoming America’s hookup for domestically-produced batteries.
Photo by: SK On
Ford has invested billions into its joint venture with SK On. The pair have since broken ground on plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, in part thanks to a $9.2 billion loan from the U.S. government. But it turns out that the planned capacity of these plants will result in more batteries than Ford can use. Way more, actually, and that might just turn out to be a good thing for the industry.
“Both of our parents are looking for other opportunities for other new business,” said BlueOval SK CEO, Michael Adams, in an interview with Bloomberg.
He went on to note that the Ford-backed JV still plans on opening the doors to its new Tennessee plant in 2027, but cautioned that production of Ford’s EV production may not grow at the rate the company initially projected.
“We’re in a monitoring phase and just being conservative in what we do in order to make sure that we’re safe. I think the market continues to grow, but it will be at a slower pace,” Adams said.
Ford’s excess capacity isn’t because it didn’t plan well. It’s because the EV industry grown at a slower rate than most in the industry expected. With the $7,500 U.S. federal tax credit coming to an end and tariffs biting, EV sales are expected to fall starting in the third quarter of this year. This means a whole bunch of batteries that Ford just can’t use.
The next best thing? Sell them to someone who will.
Adams says that he believes the chance that new customers will sign up for battery capacity is “fairly high.” He’s probably not wrong, either, especially considering that automakers will soon be faced with large import tariffs for vehicles and parts brought into the U.S. from abroad. By manufacturing domestically, Ford could help brands avoid this unexpected cost while still stuffing its wallet.
So Ford’s next big win? It’s not as simple or neat as some hot new EV (although the cheap $30,000 EV pickup might do some heavy lifting in this department before we know it). Instead, the brand could be setting its sights on something easier to manage: energy storage. That’s a source of major growth for Tesla, and it’s no wonder why. As the world electrifies, we’re going to need a whole bunch of batteries, and somebody has to build them. Might as well be Ford.