CFO: Ford ‘Certainly’ Not Yet Looking to Grow Battery Business Beyond Initial Plan

Shall we consider this a lesson learned from the automotive sector’s malinvestments in electric vehicles?

Ford Motor Co. leaders aren’t prepared yet to consider adding manufacturing capacity to the battery energy storage systems plan they’ve outlined to date, CFO Sherry House told an investment bank conference on June 3.

The auto titan in December announced it would spend about $2 billion to repurpose battery-making investments in Kentucky and set up the new Ford Energy business to deliver at least 20 gigawatt hours of utility-scale battery systems annually by late next year. Executives have since detailed their plans for the Ford Energy DC Block, a 20-foot containerized system powered by lithium iron phosphate cells with 5.45 megawatt hours of capacity.

Speaking at the UBS Auto and Auto Tech Conference 2026, House said Ford teams are “making terrific progress” on their work to convert the company’s Glendale, Kentucky, plant from manufacturing nickel manganese cobalt batteries that had been destined to go into Ford EVs to making lithium iron phosphate units. But asked by UBS analyst Joe Spak about the possibility of expanding into a second building in Glendale or growing elsewhere, House was emphatic.

“Let’s get our contracts all set for this first 20 gigawatt hours,” she said. “We’ll continue to evaluate if and when it makes sense to expand but we’re certainly not looking to be talking about that today.”

Outlining possible future growth, House added that expanding into the second Glendale structure built under a now-dissolved joint venture with South Korea’s SK On would cost a good deal more than the $2 billion being devoted to Ford Energy’s initial phase because the first building has already been outfitted in large part. She also noted that Ford’s plant in Marshall, Michigan, could absorb future demand if it materializes.

“We do have a little bit of capacity there but that’s not something that we’re talking about at this point. We’re still talking about the 20 gigawatt hours,” she said. “There are other alternatives for expansion that we could look at but we just think that we want to really focus on landing successfully what we have right now.”

Ford’s systems are in the sweet spot of where a large part of the energy market is heading. Analysts at BloombergNEF last month said that deployment of new energy storage systems topped 100 GW for the first time in 2025 and is set to surge to 158 GW this year and more than 300 GW a decade from now.

“Falling costs, greater renewables penetration, co-location mandates, auctions, and emerging applications, such as data centers and electric vehicle charging, are all poised to lift annual storage additions,” BloombergNEF Senior Associate Isshu Kikuma wrote.

Ford’s push to secure some of those investments under Ford Energy President Lisa Drake last month landed a commitment from EDF power solutions North America, a unit of France’s EDF Group, to buy up to 4 GWh of capacity annually over a five-year span. Ford Energy plans to begin delivering DC Blocks under that deal in 2028.

Enthusiasm about Ford’s budding battery business has helped drive up the company’s shares (Ticker: F) in recent weeks. Over the past month, the stock has risen more than 30% to about $15.70, a move that has grown its market capitalization to nearly $63 billion.