(Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. says it has secured enough battery supply to build more than half a million electric vehicles annually by late next year, a quantum leap above the 27,140 battery-powered cars it sold in the US last year.
The automaker has signed contracts with suppliers representing 60 gigawatt hours of annual battery capacity, enough to build 600,000 EVs a year, it said in a statement Thursday. Those suppliers include China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, as Bloomberg previously reported.
Ford also said it has secured 70% of the battery capacity it needs to build more than 2 million EVs annually starting in 2026, which helps meet a goal Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley set in March.
Securing enough batteries to build millions of plug-in models has become a key competitive battleground in the emerging EV market. General Motors Co. has established a partnership with South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. to build battery plants in the US. Ford already has a joint venture with South Korea’s SK Innovation Co. to spend $11.4 billion on three battery factories and an EV assembly plant in Tennessee and Kentucky.
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