HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — It’s disturbing news for our friends in West Tennessee: The grand opening of a massive Ford plant in what they call the “Blue Oval City” has been postponed for several years.
The new manufacturing plant will create 6,000 on-site jobs and produce 500,000 all-electric Ford pickup trucks each year. Last month, Ford officially halted production at its West Tennessee plant, which is not due to start production until late 2027, instead of next year.
“Ford is resetting the launch date for its breakthrough electric truck, codenamed Project T3, to late 2027. Building on all the lessons learned with F-150 Lightning customers, the truck will deliver features and experiences never before seen in a Ford truck, including upgraded bi-directional charging capabilities and advanced aerodynamics. The truck will be assembled at the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center in the Blue Oval City,” Ford said in a news release. “The resetting of the launch date will allow the company to capitalize on lower-cost battery technology and take advantage of other cost breakthroughs as the market continues to develop.”
Industry experts say electric vehicle sales aren’t declining — they’re just growing at a much slower rate than the market had expected. It’s unclear whether growth will remain low or increase over time.
Ford Motor Co. and state leaders continue to insist that this is merely a delay and that the project will move forward, but one can’t help but wonder what would happen if the plan fell through.
Hemlock Semiconductor
A look back through the NewsChannel 5 archives shows something similar has happened before: Hemlock Semiconductor made a much-talked-about announcement that it was building a factory in Clarksville. Check out the old footage in the player above.
“From what I understand, this could be the largest industrial investment ever made in the state of Tennessee,” then-Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper said in a 2008 interview.
“This is a really big win for the state,” then-Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said that same day in 2008.
The Hemlock plant was expected to employ up to 1,400 people to make polysilicon, a key component of solar panels. Local leaders broke ground and even added an associate degree program at Austin Peay State University to train future workers, but the plant never fully opened. Unforeseen market conditions caused the market for polysilicon to collapse.
“We were surprised and disappointed to hear their announcement,” then-Governor Bill Haslam said in 2014.
Hemlock received nearly $400 million in taxpayer incentives, but never got a share of them because it never opened. Still, Tennessee paid nearly $100 million. The state legislature was outraged, and passed a law requiring the company to have “clawbacks” in the future — a way for the state to get money back if the project failed.
Ford Clawback
The Ford deal includes safeguards that allow the state to repay most of its funding, except for construction grants and site improvements. The state has provided Ford with $138.2 million for infrastructure work and demolition of buildings. The hope is that if Ford’s project fails, a future company could cash in by building the skeleton of a megafactory.
Ford is receiving $884 million in total, $500 million of which is in grants, and the rest of the funding will require the company to meet certain benchmarks around job numbers and salary levels.
Have any more information about this story? Email us at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
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