Ford SK On joint venture will receive $9.2 billion in U.S. government loans to build a new battery plant

CTOnews.com, June 22 (Xinhua) the U.S. Department of Energy said on Thursday local time that it plans to provide up to $9.2 billion in loans to BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford Motor and South Korean battery maker SK On, to help it build three new battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky that can produce more than 120 kilowatt hours of batteries a year.

BlueOval SK's conditional low-cost government loans come from the government's Advanced Technology vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program.

The plants will power vehicles using these batteries in the coming decades, replacing more than 455 million gallons of gasoline a year, according to the Department of Energy. The project is expected to create a total of about 5000 construction jobs in Tennessee and Kentucky and another 7500 operational jobs once these plants start producing batteries.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy also allocated $2.5 billion (currently about 17.95 billion yuan) to a joint venture between General Motors and LG New Energy to help it build new lithium-ion battery production facilities. The loan will be used for facilities in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.