$800M Plan Eyed for Tennessee EV Supply Plants

Rendering of the Magna BlueOval City battery enclosures plant in Stanton, Tenn. Image courtesy of Magna International

Magna International, a global automotive supplier, is investing nearly $800 million to build the first two supplier facilities at Ford Motor Co.’s $5.6 billion BlueOval City mega campus in western Tennessee, where Ford will be manufacturing electric vehicles and advanced batteries.

The Canada-based company—the biggest auto parts supplier in North America and fourth-largest in the world—plans to build two facilities at Ford’s supplier park in Stanton, Tenn., and a third plant in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. The on-site supplier campus will provide Ford vertical integration for efficient production at BlueOval City, which is projected to produce 500,000 electric pickup trucks at full production. Magna will supply BlueOval City with battery enclosures from an 800,000-square-foot plant, and seats made at a 140,000-square-foot facility.

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Magna also intends to build a 400,000-square-foot stamping and assembly plant about 150 miles away at the Team Lawrence Commerce Park West in Lawrenceburg, that will produce truck frames and employ approximately 250 workers.

Production at all three plants is scheduled to begin in 2025. Combined, the Magna investment is set to create approximately 1,300 new jobs in Tennessee. The company expects to employ about 750 people at the battery enclosures facility and another 300 people at the seating plant.

EV investment growth

Rendering of the Magna seating plant in Stanton, Tenn. Image courtesy of Magna International

Stuart McWhorter, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, said in a prepared statement that the $790 million investment from Magna will impact the economic landscape of Lawrence and Haywood counties, and strengthen the EV supply chain in Tennessee for years to come.

McWhorter and Gov. Bill Lee jointly made the announcement about Magna’s investment in Tennessee yesterday. The state has attracted more than $14.8 billion in EV-related investments, resulting in nearly 11,000 new jobs since 2019.

In September 2021, Ford unveiled its plan to build the mega campus on a nearly 6-square-mile site in Tennessee that will also include a BlueOval SK battery plant. BlueOval City is designed to be Ford’s first carbon-neutral manufacturing and battery campus as the company aims to power all its plants with renewable and carbon-free electricity by 2035.

Rendering of the Magna plant in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Image courtesy of Magna International

The auto manufacturer supplier broke ground on the 3,600-acre Stanton campus in September 2022. In March, Ford announced plans for the on-site supplier park that will feature five separate facilities. With Magna taking two of the slots, three more are still available. Ford also said in March it was on track to begin production in 2025 of its second-generation electric truck. Magna currently supplies components for Ford’s F-150 Lightning first-generation electric pickups in its Ontario, Canada, plant.

Ford is also building a 4 million-square-foot campus in Glendale, Ky., that will feature two battery plants to power Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles. The 1 BlueOval development was the largest industrial project under construction in the Louisville, Ky., market as of April, according to CommercialEdge.