Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it plans to accelerate battery development by devoting a team of 150 people to a new "Ford Ion Park," described by the automaker as a $185 million project focused on technology research — "including the future of battery manufacturing."
The 200,000 square foot lab will be located in southeast Michigan and will open in late 2022. Ford did not specify a location, nor did it say how many new jobs might be created.
Separately, Ford is putting a battery and benchmarking lab in Allen Park, also an endeavor first announced Tuesday.
While it is not planning to manufacture a large volume of batteries, the company does plan to do pilot manufacturing.
Part of the inspiration for this effort is driven by supply chain challenges in recent months that have created costly disruptions in the automotive industry and others.
What it means is that Ford will no longer "hedge" its bets, said Hau Thai-Tang, chief product platform and operations officer, in a conference call with reporters. Ford plans to "create the future versus wait for it to play out."
While former Ford CEO Jim Hackett was more apprehensive about diversifying technology and plunging into projects that would expand company responsibilities, new CEO Jim Farley is more aggressive about vertical integration that allows the company to enhance control of its parts supplies while containing costs.
The effort is about developing expertise and creating flexibility and better preparing for what's ahead in the rapidly developing electric vehicle segment, Ford said.
"Investing in more battery R&D ultimately will help us speed the process to deliver more, even better, lower cost EVs for customers over time," Thai-Tang said.
Ford is planning to centralize expertise in battery technology, research, manufacturing, planning, purchasing, quality and finance "to help Ford more quickly develop and manufacture battery cells and batteries."
At the Allen Park site, Ford will explore opportunities to evaluate everything from mining to recycling.
"We are modernizing Ford's battery development and manufacturing capabilities so we can better control costs and production variables in-house and scale production around the world with speed and quality," Thai-Tang said.
The Ford lab will include small-scale development for electrode, cell and array design and manufacturing and use of new materials, Ford said.
Arnand Sankaran, who has 32 U.S. patents in automotive power electronics and hybrid vehicle technologies, will lead the Ford Ion Park team as its new director. He has been Ford director of electrified systems engineering.
The Allen Park lab is expected to test and identify the right battery cells and chemistries to power Ford's EV lineup.
"While some automakers have placed their bets, we are going to use this lab with the help of partners and suppliers to fine-tune our batteries ... exploring next-generation lithium ion solutions, including solid-state batteries," Sankaran said.
Ford said experts at the Battery Benchmarking and Test Laboratory, which opened in late 2020 but wasn't announced publicly, is a $100 million, 185,000 square foot lab that has already analyzed more than 150 types of battery cells.
"The lab team will "support battery cell design validation, controls calibration, pack development and pilot battery pack projects with different chemistries," a news release said. "The lab team can replicate the performance of full-scale production batteries under extreme weather and customer use cases, speeding implementation in future vehicles."
The all-electric 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E won the North American Utility Vehicle of the Year as well as praise from consumers, widely viewed as a bellwether by company executives.
Ford plans to invest at least $22 billion through 2025 on electrification.
