GoKawiilFord Motor Company has been quietly working on a secret side hustle. The automaker announced Monday the formal launch of Ford Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary that will manufacture and sell US-assembled battery energy storage systems for utilities, large industrial customers and -- perhaps most importantly -- data centers. Ford hopes to deploy at least 20GWh of storage capacity annually, with the first customer deliveries planned for late 2027.
The pivot has been telegraphed since Ford and SK On killed their $11.4 billion BlueOval SK joint venture last year, splitting the factories and leaving Ford with a very large, very underutilized Kentucky battery plant and a decision to make. Repurposing that Glendale plant for grid-scale energy storage production is the kind of move that looks obvious in retrospect -- though "obvious" and "well-executed" are different things. Ford still has to prove it's capable of the latter.
The DC Block is a shipping container-sized battery built around LFP prismatic cells. Ford Energy
The Ford Energy DC Block
Ford Energy's flagship product is the DC Block, a standardized 20-foot containerized system built around 512Ah lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, prismatic cells. Two configurations will ultimately be offered -- the FE-250 (two-hour duration) and the FE-450 (four-hour) -- both delivering 5.45MWh of rated energy capacity across a 1,040- to 1,500-volt DC operating range. Ford says it'll outfit the units with liquid-cooled thermal management and a proprietary battery management system. It's targeting a 20-year service life, with predictable performance and ease of servicing baked into the design.
LFP battery chemistry is often thought of as the budget choice for EVs, due to its lower energy density (which means increased weight) compared to lithium-ion tech. However, for stationary applications where weight doesn't matter, LFP's improved thermal stability and longer duty cycles make it a smarter, more economical choice. It's also free from the cobalt and nickel supply chain headaches that have plagued EV battery economics.
Ford Energy's operations will span the full stack, from electrode coil production through module and container assembly, plus sales and service. That's an ambitious scope for a subsidiary that only popped into existence this week.
Ford is leaning hard into the domestic manufacturing angle, and for good reason. Battery projects that qualify for the Investment Tax Credit and meet domestic-content requirements are more attractive to utility and data center builders navigating today's uncertain policy environment. The Kentucky plant, which is well-positioned to hit those ITC thresholds, could be the secret sauce Ford needs to succeed.
Enlarge Image Ford, struggling with lower-than-expected EV sales, shifts to battery energy storage and data center energy demand to take up the slack in its surplus battery manufacturing capacity. Where have I heard that before? Ford
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