Ford Motor Co. and South Korean battery manufacturer SK On Co. this week officially established a joint venture to operate U.S. electric vehicle battery plants together, a move announced last year.
SK On and an SK On subsidiary called SK Battery America Inc. on Wednesday closed on the formation of BlueOvalSK, LLC, a JV that will build and operate one EV battery plant in Tennessee and two in Kentucky, according to a regulatory filing. The JV will supply EV batteries to Ford “and its affiliates.”
Ford and SK Battery America hold equal ownership stakes in the JV, which will be a consolidated subsidiary of SK On.
Ford agreed to contribute up to $6.6 billion in capital to the JV over a five-year period ending in 2026, per the filing.
In May 2021, Ford and SK announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a JV to build batteries.