One of Kentucky’s largest electric vehicle battery plants begins production
Commercial production of electric vehicle batteries is underway at a plant in Kentucky that is part of the state’s largest economic development project yet.
BlueOval SK in Hardin County has begun producing batteries at its Kentucky 1 facility, the company announced Aug. 19. In a newsletter and Facebook post, the company said the first battery rolled off its assembly line Tuesday and will power the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning.
The plant’s more than 1,450 employees will celebrate the official start of the plant’s battery production later this week, plant manager Mark Hayley said in the newsletter.
“We are proud to build batteries at our Kentucky 1 facility that will power next-generation electric vehicles,” BlueOval SK CEO Michael Adams said in the newsletter. “The start of production is a significant milestone that strengthens our position in the electric vehicle battery market.
“BlueOval SK is creating good-paying, American jobs in the heart of the Commonwealth,” Adams added. “We are strengthening the domestic supply chain and driving the transition to zero-emissions transportation.”
Ford Motor Co. and South Korea-based SK On began building the nearly $6 billion, 1,500-acre campus in 2022. Two plants, each estimated to employ 2,500, are being built at the site.
The Kentucky 1 facility is the only one in Glendale producing batteries. It employs 1,450 people. The second facility was slated to open next year, but its construction start continues to be delayed.
The plant is just outside Elizabethtown, about 90 miles southwest of Lexington or 50 miles south of Louisville. According to 2023 estimates from a study commissioned by the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce, once complete, the entire plant will become the largest electric vehicle battery plant in the world and the second-largest manufacturing site in the country by square feet.
In a statement, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the start of battery production “marks a historic milestone four years in the making.”
“... This remains the single largest investment in the history of our state, and it sparked a surge of new investment and job announcements that placed Kentucky at the center of EV-related innovation,” he said.
Also Tuesday, Ford and SK On said its battery plant in West Tennessee’s BlueOval City near Stanton was delaying production until 2027, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Current EV landscape in Kentucky
Production at BlueOval started Tuesday a week after Ford said it will invest $2 billion in its Louisville Assembly Plant. There, the automaker will keep 2,200 jobs to support making a new midsize electric truck, the first in a family of electric vehicles it hopes to produce at scale.
Also at the Louisville plant, Ford will simplify production of the EV by swapping one long conveyor with an “assembly tree.”
Batteries for the new vehicle will be made and supplied by a BlueOval plant in Michigan instead of the one in Kentucky.
“At Ford, we made a big bet on our country, we made a huge bet in the state,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the plant Aug. 11. “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.”
At BlueOval, after months of back and forth with the National Labor Relations Board and company leadership, workers at the plant are to vote Aug. 26 and 27 to unionize as part of the United Auto Workers.
The plant’s employees say Ford and SK On launched an anti-union campaign that delayed the election. Workers called for an investigation July 1 into the companies. That call is in addition to open cases of unfair labor practices and ongoing concern about worker safety at the plant.
Changing EV policy at the federal level
At the end of September, tax credits for consumer purchases of electric vehicles will sunset. The Trump administration is also redirecting funding away from infrastructure it takes to charge electric vehicles.
Beshear joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit over the withheld funds Aug. 6.
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program approved almost $70 million for Kentucky through a funding formula for federal fiscal years 2022 through 2025. Trump’s action canceled $32 million in approved state projects.
Overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, the infrastructure program provided states with funds to cover up to 80% of the cost to build, own and operate charging stations.
“I think all of the automotive experts agree that EVs are the future, and I think a lot of people have tried to fight the future, but no one’s ever won,” Beshear told the Herald Leader Monday evening before BlueOval began production.
“The length that it’s going to take to get to that future, I do think the current federal policy is hitting us in a negative way.”
Beshear said he was “certainly greatly disappointed” in Kentucky’s 2nd District US Rep. Brett Guthrie’s part in rolling back some electric vehicle incentives. Guthrie’s district includes Bowling Green and Elizabeth town, two cities where EV battery production is taking place and supporting thousands of jobs.
“With that said, what Ford is doing may be the answer,” Beshear said. “They are changing around an assembly line and making cars in a way to make a highly affordable EV that is going to be less expensive than most non-EVs. Not only are you going to be able to afford it at a time when vehicles cost a lot, but then you’re not going to have to pay for gas.
“They’re designing it in a way where you’ll be able to power your home for days at a time. And I’m really excited that this innovation is coming to Kentucky.”
At an Americans for Prosperity Kentucky breakfast in Georgetown Tuesday, 6th District US Rep. Andy Barr told reporters after giving remarks about the local impact of the recently passed tax and spending bill that there’s obviously demand for electric vehicles, pointing to Tesla and some of what Ford is doing.
“What I don’t like is industrial policy where the government is putting its thumb on the scales and getting ahead of the market demand,” he said. “In Kentucky, in a rural state where we don’t have the EV infrastructure — at least not yet — there is still substantial demand for the combustion engine and for trucks and for farming.
“Clearly, the policies of the Biden administration got way ahead of where the market is. I’m not against electric vehicles, I’m just for the market,” he said. “... Capitalism is always better than industrial policy because capital is allocated efficiently based on where the market is heading, as opposed to where the government, politicians and bureaucrats think it needs to go.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 7:35 AM.
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