April 29, 2021—Ford Motor Co. plans to accelerate battery development by devoting a team of 150 people to a new "Ford Ion Park," which was described by the automaker as a $185 million project focused on technology research—"including the future of battery manufacturing."
A Detroit Free Press report laid out the details of the new project, saying the 200,000-square-foot development will open in late 2022 in southeast Michigan. Ford did not specify a location, nor did it say how many new jobs might be created, the report said.
“It’s always very difficult, especially for incumbent manufacturers, to navigate a disruptive transition," Hau Thai-Tang, chief product platform and operations officer, told reporters. "The clarity that (Ford CEO) Jim Farley has brought as part of this plan is that we will lead this transition from ICE (internal combustion engines) to BEVs (battery electric vehicles). And we will no longer take an approach of hedging our bets and planning around the uncertainty of how fast that will play out."
