To Accelerate EV Development, Ford Receives $9.2 Billion Loan From US Government

Ford F-150 Lightning 2023 (source: Ford)

JAKARTA - Competition between automotive manufacturers in the Electric Vehicle (EV) segment is heating up. Several manufacturers massively invest in order to excel in the EV market.

What's more, the electric car market is being controlled by manufacturers from China. With several Chinese manufacturers that have expanded their global market by presenting various models with leading technology accompanied by affordable prices.

US vehicle manufacturer Ford is aware of this. Because of this, Ford recently received loan funds from the Loan Program Office (LPO) from the US Department Energy (DOE) amounting to 9.2 billion US dollars or Rp138.4 trillion.

Quoted from Bloomberg, Thursday, June 22, the US government loan was used to build three factories that will produce batteries for EVs under Ford Motor Company, Ford and Lincoln.

The loan is the largest the US government has ever given since 2009. Ford will use the money to build a factory with the "BlueOval City" project in collaboration with the cell maker, SK Innovation, and will build two other factory facilities in Kentucky and West Tennessee.

The company expects the three factories to operate in 2025 which has a combined capacity of up to 129 gigawatt-hours. This will smooth out the company's plans to assemble Ford cars by about two million EVs per year by 2026.

With the construction of the large plant, it is hoped that it will build a domestic supply chain to reduce dependence on China in terms of building an EV.

The Ford manufacturing complex will be built six square miles in Tennessee will be home to electric vehicle manufacturers that will manufacture next-generation pickup trucks. It is hoped that the facility can build 500,000 vehicles per year.

Combined, the money Ford had to disburse in order to build three battery and EV manufacturing plants is estimated at 11.4 billion US dollars or around Rp171.5 trillion.