Ford Motor Firm has been quietly engaged on a secret facet hustle. The automaker introduced Monday the formal launch of Ford Power, a completely owned subsidiary that can manufacture and promote US-assembled battery power storage methods for utilities, massive industrial prospects and — maybe most significantly — information facilities. Ford hopes to deploy a minimum of 20GWh of storage capability yearly, with the primary buyer deliveries deliberate for late 2027.
The pivot has been telegraphed since Ford and SK On killed their $11.4 billion BlueOval SK three way partnership final 12 months, splitting the factories and leaving Ford with a really massive, very underutilized Kentucky battery plant and a call to make. Repurposing that Glendale plant for grid-scale power storage manufacturing is the type of transfer that appears apparent looking back — although “apparent” and “well-executed” are various things. Ford nonetheless has to show it is able to the latter.
The DC Block is a delivery container-sized battery constructed round LFP prismatic cells.
The Ford Power DC Block
Ford Power’s flagship product is the DC Block, a standardized 20-foot containerized system constructed round 512Ah lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, prismatic cells. Two configurations will in the end be provided — the FE-250 (two-hour period) and the FE-450 (four-hour) — each delivering 5.45MWh of rated power capability throughout a 1,040- to 1,500-volt DC working vary. Ford says it will outfit the models with liquid-cooled thermal administration and a proprietary battery administration system. It is concentrating on a 20-year service life, with predictable efficiency and ease of servicing baked into the design.
LFP battery chemistry is usually considered the price range selection for EVs, on account of its decrease power density (which implies elevated weight) in comparison with lithium-ion tech. Nonetheless, for stationary functions the place weight does not matter, LFP’s improved thermal stability and longer obligation cycles make it a better, extra economical selection. It is also free from the cobalt and nickel provide chain complications which have plagued EV battery economics.
Ford Power’s operations will span the total stack, from electrode coil manufacturing via module and container meeting, plus gross sales and repair. That is an bold scope for a subsidiary that solely popped into existence this week.
Ford is leaning exhausting into the home manufacturing angle, and for good cause. Battery initiatives that qualify for the Funding Tax Credit score and meet domestic-content necessities are extra engaging to utility and information heart builders navigating as we speak’s unsure coverage atmosphere. The Kentucky plant, which is well-positioned to hit these ITC thresholds, could possibly be the key sauce Ford must succeed.
Ford, battling lower-than-expected EV gross sales, shifts to battery power storage and information heart power demand to take up the slack in its surplus battery manufacturing capability. The place have I heard that earlier than?
The market is huge, however competitors is larger
There is a robust tailwind behind large-scale power initiatives that Ford stands to learn from. The US is projected so as to add 24 gigawatts of new utility-scale battery storage in 2026 — almost double the document 15GW put in in 2025 — with business forecasts pointing to over 600GWh on the US grid by 2030. AI information heart buildout is driving this electrical energy demand at a tempo that is straining grid infrastructure. Battery storage, which might act as a buffer between spikes in demand and the grid, is changing into important for big energy shoppers.
Shifting to supporting information facilities is a transfer that will not be tremendous fashionable amongst these of us feeling the strain that information facilities have positioned on all the pieces from pc reminiscence and power costs to the obtainable water provide. Ford is capitalizing on demand that’s, fairly frankly, consuming the grid alive. Nonetheless, from a enterprise standpoint, the Kentucky gigafactory conversion is intelligent asset reuse, particularly given the hunch in Ford’s EV gross sales.
Ford’s 20GWh annual goal would quantity to critical capability ought to the automaker-cum-battery-builder hit its objectives. On the similar time, that is lower than half what Tesla plans to provide from its Houston Megapack gigafactory alone. Tesla deployed 46.7GWh of power storage in 2025, and its Megapack 3 — promising 5MWh per unit with quantity manufacturing beginning later this 12 months — is the product the business will benchmark towards. Ford is coming into a market the place the competitors has years of operational scale, a mature software program stack and buyer relationships that took time to construct.
Nonetheless, the market is massive sufficient {that a} credible second provider with home manufacturing credentials is not an absurd proposition. Ford will want greater than spec sheet; service infrastructure, software program and business relationships take time to construct, and the window is not staying open perpetually. Then once more, this would not be the primary time we have seen Ford tackle an unattainable problem and shock us.
