Ford puts $2B into Louisville Assembly Plant for new, midsize, electric truck
Kentucky is Ford Country.
That’s the message top Ford Motor Co. officials shared Monday after announcing it’s investing nearly $2 billion in its Louisville Assembly Plant.
The investment is part of a total $5 billion the company is putting into two of its facilities. It also announced Monday it was “securing” thousands of jobs in order to deliver a new pickup and produce an advanced type of batteries financed by the investment.
The Louisville Assembly Plant, just south of UPS Worldport and the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, is to make a new midsize electric truck that will keep 2,200 jobs. Ford officials said the Louisville factory will expand by 52,000 square feet and undergo digital infrastructure upgrades to support the new vehicle’s production.
The rest of the automaker’s investment, approximately $3 billion, is going into its BlueOval Battery Park in Michigan where Ford anticipates it will create or keep 1,800 jobs.
Monday’s announcement is three years in the making and is in part a response to EV competition from China.
But mostly, Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said, the automaker’s next “Model T moment” is a bet the company’s making on electric vehicle and battery manufacturing in the U.S. it hopes will meet customer demand and turn a profit.
“At Ford, we made a big bet on our country, we made a huge bet in the state,” Farley said. “Now, why do I say bet? That’s an intentional word because there are no guarantees with this project. We’re doing so many new things. I can’t tell you with 100% certainty that this will all go just right. It is a bet. There is risk.”
He added: “At Ford, we took on the challenge many others have stopped doing. We’re taking the fight to our competition, including the Chinese, with teams across the United States: designers from California, engineers from Michigan and American workers right here in Louisville.”
Also Monday, the Kentucky Economic Development Authority approved a supplemental project to the existing agreement Ford has with the state through the Kentucky Jobs Retention Act. That agreement says the company can receive up to $550 million in tax incentives upon making its more than $5 billion investment across projects in the agreement and once Ford hits its annual job target of 12,000.
The Louisville Assembly Plant employs 3,061 people, approximately 2,808 of whom are hourly employees, according to July 2025 data reported by officials. Jobs “secured” by the Aug. 11 electric vehicle strategy and investment announcement are for 2,200 people.
Ford’s nearby Kentucky Truck Plant employs 8,738 people, most of whom are hourly employees making F-250 and F-550 Super Duty Trucks, the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.
It’s through past United Auto Workers contract negotiations that the Louisville Assembly Plant is getting the EV capital infusion. And Ford is a major reason other parts of the EV supply chain have found a home in Kentucky.
Kentucky’s governor says Ford’s investment means big things for the commonwealth.
“From the start, we knew this was an investment so bold and so big that it could create its own gravity as more companies work to be part of the EV supply chain in Kentucky now,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “Ford is again showing that Kentucky not only builds the toughest vehicles, but (that) we’re also the best place for the highest technology and the most advanced manufacturing.”
Electric vehicles aside, the commonwealth is the No. 1 producer of cars, light trucks and SUVs per capita, according to the state. In 2023, Kentucky’s automotive-related exports totaled $6 billion. There are more than 550 automotive-related companies in Kentucky employing more than 106,000 people.
More on Ford’s new EV strategy
The strategy has two parts: The Ford Universal EV Production System and Ford Universal EV Platform will simplify production in order to make a family of vehicles at scale.
The first in that line is a midsize, four-door electric pickup assembled at the Louisville Assembly Plant starting in 2027, officials said. The starting price is approximately $30,000.
“We took a radical approach to a very hard challenge: Create affordable vehicles that delight customers in every way that matters — design, innovation, flexibility, space, driving pleasure and cost of ownership,” Farley said. “We have all lived through far too many ‘good college tries’ by Detroit automakers to make affordable vehicles that ends up with idled plants, layoffs and uncertainty.”
He added: “So, this had to be a strong, sustainable and profitable business. From Day 1, we knew there was no incremental path to success. We empowered a tiny skunkworks team three time zones away from Detroit. We tore up the moving assembly line concept and designed a better one. And we found a path to be the first automaker to make prismatic LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries in the US.”
Monday’s electric vehicle strategy has been teased by Ford executives for weeks following its second-quarter earnings call at the end of July. During that period, the company reported it had lost $1.3 billion on its EV unit.
The automaker continues to delay the launch of new-generation electric vehicles in favor of smaller, affordable and profitable models. At the start of the year in reviewing its fourth quarter and full-year results from 2024, Ford projected electric vehicle losses of up to $5.5 billion in 2025.
The Ford Universal EV Platform
The new platform enables a family of affordable vehicles to be produced at scale. Officials described them as electric, fun to drive and digitally advanced with “over-the-air” updates that will keep improving the vehicle.
Farley said the platform reduces parts by 20% compared to a typical vehicle. It has fewer fasteners and takes fewer workstations to make in the plant, creating a 15% faster assembly time, officials said.
Batteries in the platform, prismatic LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries made in Michigan, enable space and weight savings, while “delivering cost reduction and durability for customers,” officials said.
Ford is building a $6 billion, 1,500-acre battery plant in Hardin County just outside Elizabethtown. Workers there are expected to cast a vote to join the United Auto Workers Aug. 26 and 27. One facility at the site is expected to produce batteries by the end of this year.
The new midsize truck is forecasted to have more passenger room than the latest Toyota RAV4 and will be as fast as the Mustang EcoBoost. The entire electric vehicle platform has a low center of gravity from the battery, instant torque from electric motors and other features.
Ford executive expect the new-to-market vehicle to be profitable within the first year of launch.
The Ford Universal EV Production System
The system to make the vehicles, which is meant to increase manufacturing efficiency, will simplify production and ease operations for workers, Ford officials said.
Instead of one long conveyor, three sub-assemblies run down lines simultaneously and then join together. Company executives and engineers have dubbed it the “assembly tree.” The company’s EV platform will have the front and rear of the vehicles assembled separately and then joined together down the line by the battery that also stands the be the floor of the vehicle.
Because of the integration of the production system and the platform, officials project assembly of the midsize truck could be up to 40% faster than the Louisville Assembly Plant’s current vehicles, the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair.
The assembly tree also cures some manufacturing ills. Vice President of Americas Manufacturing at Ford Bryce Currie said the ergonomics of assembly are better with less requirement for workers to turn, reach and sit inside vehicles for part installation.
This story has been updated with additional commentary from Farley and Currie from Ford and from Gov. Beshear. It was also updated to include information about tax incentives approved for Ford by the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority Aug. 11. This is a developing story and may be updated again.
This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 10:31 AM.
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