Ford battery plant promises jobs for multiple generations

GLENDALE, Ky. (WAVE) - Ford executives offered a brief update Wednesday on plans for the new electric vehicle battery plant in Hardin County.

The actual landscape in Glendale, south of Elizabethtown, remains largely unchanged since Ford unveiled its ambitious plans in September.

Due to go into production in three years, construction on the $5.8 billion dollar plant will begin soon. But attention is already focused on the 5,000 workers who will eventually populate the electric vehicle battery plant.

“Some of the talent that will work at this facility, they’re in high school right now, they’re in trade schools,” Greg Christensen, Ford Electric Vehicle Footprint Director said. “And so we don’t take that lightly. We understand it’s a big part of building community as well.”

That is encouraging news at places like Elizabethtown Community and Technical College (ECTC).

“Well even if, say, I don’t get on with the Ford plant,” ECTC student Dustin Childress said, “the 5,000 new jobs just means they’re going to open up new opportunities at other factories and other places in the area.”

“So, hopefully they can get some really big high-paying career jobs and be there the next 30 to 40 years,” ECTC Professor Marty Sutherland said.

The Ford facility will include an expansion of ECTC, so that future students can be trained to specific manufacturing needs. Bulldozers will soon level the 1,500 acre location, the first step in building a transformational facility literally from the ground up.

“Initial roads and work with local utilities,” Christensen said. “And then from there you’ll see foundations, the building of foundations for these significant structures. And then later this year or next year you’ll also see the buildings themselves being produced.”

Copyright 2022 WAVE. All rights reserved.