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by Peter Valdés-Dapena, CNN – November 22, 2023.
Ford has restarted painting at an electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan, but the plant will be smaller than planned.
Ford halted painting at the site in late September due to the United Auto Workers strike, saying at the time that the company needed to reconsider the scope of the project. The automaker had originally planned to employ up to 2,500 employees at the plant when the plant went into production in 2026.
Ford now plans to employ about 1,700 people, the automaker said Tuesday.
“[We] right-sized balancing investment, expansion and profitability,” Ford said in a statement.
Last month, Ford laid off some of the staff who built the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Rival General Motors also said it postponed expanding production capacity of its electric Chevrolet Silverado EV due to slow growth in demand.
By generating batteries in the U. S. , the plant is expected to take advantage of EV tax credits tied in part to domestic battery manufacturing.
Plans called for the plant to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Co. , but build batteries with the “know-how” and facilities of China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. , or CATL. CATL is the largest battery maker and materials from the world. batteries to Tesla.
Ford is also building two battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee. The automaker is building those plants with SK Innovations, a company in South Korea. Ford has said it plans to produce two million electric vehicles worldwide by the end of 2026.
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