by Liam Niemeyer, Tennessee Lookout
August 12, 2025
LOUISVILLE — Ford Motor Company will invest nearly $2 billion to convert a longtime auto manufacturing plant in Louisville to build electric vehicles from a new platform adaptable to multiple vehicle types, aiming to launch a mid-sized EV pickup truck by 2027.
Ford President and CEO Jim Farley told an audience of plant workers, local and state elected officials and other representatives Monday inside the Louisville Assembly Plant that moving forward with the “universal” EV platform was a risk, especially with global EV competition, but the company was investing in the future.
“We needed a rapid approach and a really tough challenge to create an affordable vehicle that delights customers in every way that matters,” Farley said. “We need to do it and be sustainable and make money, and we need to do it with American workers.”
Farley and other Ford executives said the EV truck would be priced starting at $30,000, would have an “amazing range” and be built through a newly designed assembly line to be created at the Louisville plant. The EV batteries for the new platform will be supplied from a Michigan battery plant. The new truck will have 20% fewer parts compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, allowing for significantly quicker assembly line production. The more efficient assembly line for electric vehicles, these executives said, would also mean less physical strain workers and less getting in and out of vehicles.
Farley was joined on stage by Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who lauded the “massive investment” in the state. A release from Beshear’s office states Ford’s plant conversion would be the third largest economic development project in Kentucky’s history.
“This cutting-edge platform will be the foundation for the next generation of vehicles. The best part is, these vehicles will be affordable,” Beshear said. “They’re going to help so many American families keep more money in their pockets for groceries, medicine, school supplies and yes, even that family vacation.”
Leaders with United Auto Workers Local 862, representing workers at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant and Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville said the newly designed assembly line for electric vehicles would cause some plant workers to lose their jobs in Louisville and have to take jobs at another Ford operation. The Louisville Assembly Plant currently builds two SUVs, the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair.
“It’s not nearly as drastic as they expected when they first came at us talking about an EV,” said Brandon Reisinger, the Louisville Assembly Plant building chair for the union. “I don’t foresee anybody hitting the street at all. I don’t know that our working number will be exactly the same it is now, but nobody’s gonna get laid off.”
Reisinger told reporters some of the work done elsewhere to preassemble cars before they arrive at the plant will be done at the plant with the new EV, offsetting the downsizing. He estimates the plant’s workforce will be about a couple hundred fewer people when the plant conversation is complete, also accounting for people who retire. Ford executives said 2,200 jobs at the plant will be “secured” with the conversion; about 3,300 workers are employed at the plant as of 2024, according to Ford.
Reisinger said he believes the conversion could begin at the end of the year with some workers temporarily unemployed during a few months of the conversion, but the union’s contract provides for supplemental unemployment benefits to workers worth about 80% of a paycheck.
When asked about political headwinds against electric vehicles from elected officials in the federal and state governments Reisinger pointed to the lower cost of charging an EV compared to filling up a gas tank as a compelling reason for EVs.
“I’m going to end up buying me one of these as well when we start building,” Reisinger said. “It’s going to be a very cost-effective vehicle to drive.”
(Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.)
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
