GLENDALE, Ky. — Ford Motor Company's electric battery park project in Glendale, KY, got a visit from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Friday.
Buttigieg toured the BlueOval SK construction site, seeing major progress made in just a few months.
Alongside state and local officials in Hardin County, he discussed the 5,000 jobs that'll be created through the manufacturing plant.
"When it opens it will be one of the largest EV battery manufacturing facilities in the world," Buttigieg said, supporting Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's vision for the state to be at the center of the electric vehicle (EV) wave.
The project, to include twin EV battery plants, broke ground in late 2022 and is set to have a major impact on the local economy in Hardin County and surrounding areas.
"We're not just going to be building batteries here, we're going to be building livelihoods," Buttigieg said.
One of the larger benefits of this nearly $6 billion project is keeping young adults interested in skilled manufacturing within the state. That includes being trained at an on-site facility, set to break ground later this year and open in 2024.
"You grow up getting the message that the only way to prosper is to get out of the community that raised you and that shaped you, but not anymore. That’s what this is about," Buttigieg said.
Elizabethtown Community & Technical College (ECTC) will be running the training center. School President Juston Pate tells WHAS11 the focus is to convince more young talent to stay close to home for years to come.
“[The jobs are] very high skill, very high wage, and so it’s attractive enough to get attention," Pate said. "And I can tell you I’m having a lot more conversations with a variety of young people about, 'How do I get on a path to get this job?' So I think it’s a good thing for everyone."
WHAS11 asked Buttigieg if Kentucky's infrastructure can handle the EV future, and what kind of charging network investments he believes the state needs to support it.
In response, the U.S. Transportation Secretary said:
"Well, we got to make sure there are chargers all across the highway network, and Kentucky has put forward a plan, we've approved it, and we are now funding it through funds from the bipartisan Infrastructure Law to start getting those chargers in places where they don't already exist. The idea is to make sure just as you know when you're going on a road trip, [that] you're going to be able to fill up, we want to make sure the same is true about electric vehicles."
As far as the project itself, Buttigieg says he "cannot wait to see how the ribbon cutting is going to look."
BlueOval SK, the joint venture leading the project, says it's on schedule to open up one EV battery plant by 2025 and the other by 2026.
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