Nearly five years after Ford Motor Company announced a massive electric vehicle and battery manufacturing campus poised to change the economic landscape of rural West Tennessee, the plant has yet to start production.
The project’s initial roadmap had production starting in 2025, but a series of delays, changed plans and the dissolution of Ford’s joint venture with South Korean battery manufacturer SK On pushed back hiring and production timelines for the $5.6 billion BlueOval City hub.
The campus’ future now looks different — and less electric — than the auto giant’s original pitch. But Ford and the newly minted SK On Tennessee have said they still plan to honor the commitments made in 2021 to hire 5,800 people and start manufacturing by the end of the decade.
Here’s what to know.
What is BlueOval City, and what will be made there?
BlueOval City is a 6-square-mile manufacturing campus located about 2.5 miles south of Stanton, a Haywood County town of about 700 residents.
The site lies on about 3,300 acres of former farmland that is part of the state-owned Memphis Regional Megasite. It’s sandwiched between an existing CSX railway near U.S. Route 70 and Interstate 40.
BlueOval City includes Ford’s Tennessee Truck Plant (formerly the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center), a 4-million-square-foot electric battery plant owned and operated by SK On Tennessee, a supplier park, a railyard connection and a wastewater treatment plant.
Original plans for the campus included a manufacturing facility for Ford’s EV pickup truck and a battery plant owned and operated by BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and South Korean battery manufacturer SK On. Ford and SK On announced plans to dissolve their partnership in December.
Shortly after, Ford announced that the company no longer intends to manufacture electric vehicles at BlueOval City and will instead begin producing gas-powered Built Ford Tough truck models at the renamed Tennessee Truck Plant in 2029.
SK On Tennessee took full ownership of the battery plant at BlueOval City in May and plans to produce automotive and energy storage systems there starting in 2028. The battery company will remain a tenant on the BlueOval City campus and will maintain a “strategic partnership” with Ford, including supplying batteries for Ford’s future electric vehicles, according to SK On Tennessee spokesperson Keli McAlister.
What state incentives are on the line?
Tennessee lawmakers approved a $900 million incentive package for Ford in October 2021.
Ford’s agreement with the state requires the company and the former BlueOval SK joint venture to create at least 90% of the total 5,800 jobs within 10 years. Meeting that mark secures Ford a $500 million state reimbursement for construction work.
Failing to reach 80% of the promised jobs by 2032 would trigger a “clawback” requirement forcing the company to pay back that $500 million in addition to $175 million, based on the value of the state’s donated land.
Other state contributions include:
- $200 million to build a road interchange
- $138 million for water treatment facilities and a wastewater line to the Mississippi River
- $5 million for local government consulting
The state also agreed to pay for a new $60 million extension campus for the Tennessee College of Applied Technology located down the road in Stanton to help train future employees of the massive industrial complex. The campus opened in summer 2024.
Tennessee legislators also earmarked $725,000 to create an 11-member Megasite Authority of West Tennessee to handle development of the BlueOval City site and an additional 300 acres under state control.
Megasite Authority of West Tennessee CEO Clay Bright told state lawmakers in February that the state has met all of its commitments to Ford, including the road work needed for the first phase of the project, the water supply and the wastewater treatment plant.
The dissolution of BlueOval SK and transfer of ownership to SK On Tennessee does not change the details or accountability of the state’s agreement with the companies, Bright said in February.
Separately, Ford pledged to invest $9 million in West Tennessee communities surrounding the campus in a “Good Neighbor Plan” released in January 2025. A coalition of community members has criticized the package for lacking legally binding accountability measures.
Ford announced in April that it surpassed that goal, spending nearly $11.7 million.
How many people work there now, and what is the hiring timeline?
Ford employs about 80 people at its facility, and SK On Tennessee currently employs a core team of 100 people.
Both companies say they will ramp up hiring closer to the start of production — 2028 for SK On Tennessee, and 2029 for Ford.
Before the companies’ joint venture BlueOval SK dissolved, that entity employed around 300 people. BlueOval SK laid off 150 employees in May as it prepared to transition to SK On Tennessee.
Early projections indicated that Ford would ultimately employ about 2,300 people at the truck plant. Another 3,500 people would work at the adjoining battery plant now owned by SK On Tennessee.
Why did Ford decide not to build electric trucks at BlueOval City?
Ford stated that it dropped its plans to build a next-generation electric pickup truck at BlueOval City because the “business case has eroded due to lower-than-expected demand, high costs and regulatory changes.”
The shift came after slowing demand and the rollback of Biden-era incentives and tax credits for clean energy and electric vehicles under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Ford began changing its plans for BlueOval City in August 2024, pushing back production from its initial 2025 target to 2027. The company planned to reduce its expenditures on pure electric vehicles from 40% to 30% after Ford’s electric vehicle unit reported it was on track to lose $1.3 billion in 2023. At the time, Ford stated that pushing production to 2027 would allow the company to implement lower-cost battery technology to make the electric pickup trucks more price-competitive.
In August 2025, Ford delayed mass production again, this time until 2028. At the time, the company said it was shifting its focus to smaller, more affordable electric vehicle models.
While Ford no longer plans to produce all-electric pickup trucks at BlueOval City, the company still intends to assemble a mid-sized electric pickup truck at its plant in Louisville, Kentucky starting in 2027.
Ford will turn its focus to producing a range of hybrids and extended range electric vehicles — electric vehicles that also feature combustion engines that act as generators to recharge the vehicle’s battery, extending range for long trips. The company expects about half of its global volume will be hybrids, extended-range electric vehicles and fully electric vehicles by 2030, Ford stated in December.
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