Ford’s construction of BlueOval City, a groundbreaking megacampus and manufacturing center in Tennessee, will be ushering in a new era of vehicle production and transportation, and as of a recent announcement, when BlueOval City becomes operational in 2025, it will be the birthplace of the next generation of Ford electric trucks.
“BlueOval City is the blueprint for Ford’s electric future around the world,” said Bill Ford, Ford’s executive chair. “We will build revolutionary electric vehicles at an advanced manufacturing site that works in harmony with the planet, aligning business growth and innovation with environmental progress.”
An investment of over $5.6 billion has already been invested in the campus by Ford and SK On, a partner on the project. BlueOval City will be Ford’s first carbon neutral vehicle manufacturing and battery campus, and its construction has already led to the creation of 6,000 new jobs, as well as the launch of a comprehensive education and training program called BlueOval Learning to prepare future employees of the campus.
Ford’s second-generation electric truck, code named Project T3, will be among the 500,000 EV trucks per year that BlueOval City will be able to produce at its full production rate. The F-150 Lightning radically changed the expectations of the American public in terms of the capability, drivability, and productivity that electric pickups can provide, and Project T3 aims to take that development even further.
“Project T3 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize America’s truck. We are melding 100 years of Ford truck know-how with world-class electric vehicle, software and aerodynamics talent. It will be a platform for endless innovation and capability,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO.
“PJ O’Rourke once described American pickups as ‘a back porch with an engine attached.’ Well, this new truck is going to be like the Millennium Falcon – with a back porch attached,” he said. “The manufacturing process will be equally breakthrough, with radical simplicity, cost efficiency and quality technology that will make BlueOval City the modern-day equivalent of Henry Ford’s Rouge factory. A factory of the future that people from all over the world will want to tour.”
This second generation of Ford electric trucks will be produced with carbon-free electricity at BlueOval City from day one. In developing this new truck alongside the plant that will become its home, Ford is creating a highly efficient process, with a 30% smaller general assembly footprint as opposed to traditional plants, and a higher production capacity as well. The T3 truck is being developed to provide more with less complexity as well. The T3 in Project T3 stands for “Trust The Truck”, which the development team has adopted as a motto to describe the truck that people can trust in the digital age– fully updatable, always improving, and capable of towing, hauling, and providing exportable power and endless new innovations.
If you’re interested in staying up to date on news about BlueOval City and the T3 truck, make sure to continue reading our blog to get the latest updates!