STAFF REPORT
Glasgow News 1
The path of two Glendale battery factories has changed after the international partnership running them split up and mass layoffs were announced.
In early December, the South Korean Company, SK On, announced that it would be ending the partnership with the Ford Motor Company and would be taking full control of a battery plant in Tennessee with Ford taking over sole ownership of the two factories in Glendale. The factory partnership was announced by Governor Andy Beshear in 2021 along with the $5.8 billion investment that came with it.
“BlueOval SK is aware of SK On’s disclosure and announcement,” BlueOval SK External Affairs Director Keli McAlister said in a written statement. “We are working with both of our parent companies to determine what this means for BlueOval SK.”
After the statement from McAlister early Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that all 1,600 employees at the plant will be laid off. Ford will convert the Glendale factory into a battery-storage business for customers such as utilities, wind- and solar-power developers, and data centers that train artificial intelligence.
BlueOval SK Chief Executive Officer Michael Adams told employees in a video statement that this shift would lead to “the end of all BlueOval SK Positions in Kentucky.” Adams didn’t give a time frame for those layoffs, though he said employees will have access to benefits and continue to receive paychecks for the next 60 days, WDRB reported Monday afternoon.
Ford plans to hire 2,100 employees for the new iteration of the Glendale plant, and a company spokesperson said Monday that all those laid off will have the “opportunity to apply” for those new jobs.
“Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford,” Farley said in a news release Monday. “The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities: Ford Pro, our market-leading trucks and vans, hybrids and high-margin opportunities like our new battery energy storage business.”
In a prospectus online that sets the future for the facility, Ford stated the company also plans to invest roughly $2 billion in the next two years to scale the business. “The Kentucky site will be converted to manufacture 5 MWh+ advanced battery energy storage systems. Ford plans to produce LFP prismatic cells, battery energy storage system modules and 20-foot DC container systems at this facility,” the company wrote online. “These systems are at the heart of the energy storage solution market for data centers, utilities, and large-scale industrial and commercial customers.
“… Ford plans to bring initial capacity online within 18 months, positioning the company to capture share in the growing U.S. battery energy storage systems market.”
BlueOval SK joined Barren Inc. in July 2023 and remains a member as of Monday according to Membership Services Specialist Cathy Botts.
Along with the $5.8 billion investment, the factories also planned to employ 5,000 people, which Planning Director of the Joint City-County Planning Commission Kevin Myatt previously said could mean workers could opt to live in Barren County.
Luke Schmidt previously told Glasgow News 1 that the primary spillover for Barren County would come from supplier plants that serve the EV battery industry. He is the Founder and President of Schmidt and Associates, which provided information on the plants’s economic impact on counties near Glendale.
There are some Barren County residents who are employed at the Glendale facility. The exact number is not known.
The first battery rolled off the assembly line at the plant on Aug. 19, 2025.
Kentucky 2, the second battery plant in Glendale, was indefinitely paused in 2024, according to outside information.
