By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said Tuesday it will invest $700 million and add 500 jobs at its Kentucky plant to support production of its new 2023 model year F-Series Super Duty truck.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker and its South Korean battery partner SK Innovation said in September 2021 they would invest $11.4 billion to build an electric F-150 assembly plant and three battery plants in the United States. The companies said they would invest $5.8 billion in Kentucky, and $5.6 billion in Tennessee. The Kentucky JV will create about 5,000 jobs.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) on Tuesday approved a supplemental project to an existing agreement with Ford that can provide up to $430 million in cumulative tax incentives based on the company’s total cumulative investment of $3.65 billion with an annual job target requirement of up to 12,500 over the term of the agreement.
If Ford meets annual targets, it can keep a portion of new tax revenue it generates by claiming eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.
Ford employs more than 12,000 people in Kentucky.
Ford said its F-Series truck franchise generated nearly $40 billion in revenue in 2021 — nearly one-third of the company’s global automotive revenue last year.
Through August, Ford F-Series U.S. truck sales are down 11% to 420,969, a third of total sales. Of the total F-Series sales, 6,842 were electric F-150 Lightning trucks.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
