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The highest wage for a Ford assembly line worker represented by the United Auto Workers is $ 32 an hour under a contract entered into by the company and the union in 2019. Unionized factory workers of spare parts generally earn less than those who assemble cars.
Other major automakers are also pouring billions into battery and electric car factories. GM, which this year said it plans to stop production of internal combustion vehicles by 2035, plans to build four battery plants in the United States over the next few years. Ford expects electric models to account for 40% of its production by 2030.
Even the companies that have resisted electric cars have changed their tone. Toyota Motor, in a sudden shift in strategy, said this month that it plans to spend billions of dollars over the next decade to build battery factories and hopes to sell two million electric cars a year from here the end of the decade. Previously, Toyota planned to focus on manufacturing hybrid cars and trucks and expressed doubts about fully electric vehicles taking off.
Several other automakers, including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Hyundai and Stellantis, resulting from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and French Peugeot, are also investing billions of dollars to produce electric vehicles.
“All of these companies are building battery factories because you have to have your own production if you want to make high volume electric vehicles,” said Mike Ramsey, analyst at Gartner. “The fact that they’re spending billions of dollars means they’re saying, ‘There’s no going back. We are really going to do it.
But Mr Ramsey said it was not clear how quickly consumers would adopt electric vehicles, which are still more expensive than conventional cars and trucks, even after federal and state incentives. Charging stations will also need to expand considerably as more electric models hit the road.
“There are reasons to have real concerns about where the demand will actually be,” said Ramsey.
Ford’s new Tennessee truck and battery plant will be located in Stanton, approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Memphis. To call itself Blue Oval City, the campus will cover six square miles, roughly double the size of the Ford Rouge factory that Henry Ford built in the Detroit area a century ago. The Tennessee campus is expected to employ 6,000 people and will house suppliers and a battery recycling operation as well as truck and battery factories. Ford and SK Innovation will invest $ 5.6 billion on the site.
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