The U.S. Department of Energy said on Thursday that it plans to provide up to $9.2 billion to BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford Motor and South Korean battery manufacturer SK On loan to help it build three new battery factories in Tennessee and Kentucky, capable of producing more than 120 kWh of batteries per year.
BlueOval SK’s conditional low-cost government loan comes from the government’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan scheme.
The plants will power vehicles using these batteries over the next few decades, displacing more than 455 million gallons of gasoline annually, the U.S. Department of Energy said. The project is expected to create a total of about 5,000 construction jobs in Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as 7,500 operations jobs once the factories start producing batteries.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy also allocated $2.5 billion to a joint venture between General Motors and LG New Energy to help it build new lithium-ion battery production facilities. The loan will be used for facilities in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.
