BlueOval SK Battery Park, the nearly $6 billion electric vehicle battery production plant in Hardin County, is gearing up to start manufacturing in 2025.
On Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced the company, BlueOval SK, has hired about 1,100 total workers and 750 of these employees have been assigned to work at the massive battery plant in Glendale. This facility is a key component of solidifying Kentucky as the “EV capital of the U.S.”
“It is incredible to have been involved in these negotiations, to make the pitch, to have competed with other states and won,” Beshear said. “And now to see these two enormous facilities the construction almost complete on one and just spitting out the final parts of it, this game changer is here, and it’s now impacting people’s lives directly, who are able to get meaningful employment, provide more opportunities for their kids and work in an industry and in an area we know is going to be here for decades to come.”
The Kentucky battery park, which is expected to employ 5,000 workers once both phases of the plant open, is a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and SK On. The battery production facility has spurred massive growth across Hardin County, bringing new retailers and a surge in housing development.
Hourly wages at these two BlueOval SK facilities will start at $24 and go up to $37.50 based on experience, the Courier Journal previously reported.
Beshear said the plant, known as Kentucky 1, is expected to start production in the first quarter of 2025 and should employ a total of 2,500 workers. The other twin battery plant, Kentucky 2, has previously been delayed in starting production with executives at Ford citing demand for EVs not meeting initial expectations. Of the workers hired so far, more than 85% have been local to Kentucky, Beshear said.
Earlier this year, the project came under fire as state officials investigated reports of workers exposed to mold on the construction site.
The facility is unique in Kentucky as it is also home to the Elizabethtown Community and Technical College BlueOval SK Training Center, which opened in June. This community college facility provides specific onboarding and training to soon-to-start BlueOval SK employees. The training facility was supported by a $10 million grant for workforce development that Beshear announced in November 2023.
“We know that EVs are the future,” Beshear said. “We don’t know how quickly they’ll get here, but the future has been built in Kentucky, and we are going to be a really big part of it.”
