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Ford signs joint venture with SK Innovation, backtracking its ‘no advantage’ battery stance

Ford's dedicated Battery Team at Ion Park. (Credit: Ford)

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Ford has announced that it has signed a joint venture deal with South Korea’s SK Innovation in a monumental partnership that will manufacture EV battery cells in the United States. The announcement shows Ford has backtracked on its previous stance of manufacturing batteries in-house, after the company’s previous CEO Jim Hackett said there is “no advantage” to automakers building cells themselves.

Last night, Ford unveiled its F-150 Lightning pickup truck, an all-electric version of its highly-popular F-150 pickup that has dominated the U.S. truck market for years. Ford recently entered the electric vehicle sector with its Mustang Mach-E, a crossover that holds the legendary name of the muscle car that is synonymous with performance and aesthetics. Along with the Mustang Mach-E, Ford has unveiled the e-Transit van, an all-electric take on its chassis cab cargo van, and of course, the F-150 Lightning, which had its very public unveiling last night.

Now, Ford is making moves to increase battery cell supplies for its transition to electrification by entering a joint venture with SK Innovation. The venture will be called BlueOvalSK, and it was first reported by Reuters.

On the heels of a speech from President Joe Biden on Tuesday that outlined the importance of transitioning to electrification to not only fuel carbon neutralization efforts but also for secure American, unionized jobs, Ford is now taking extra steps to secure extra manufacturing jobs in its home country while aiming to avoid battery cell shortages.

Ford CEO Jim Farley told reporters on Wednesday night that “As the industry changes, we have to insource now.” Cells are the most important and most expensive portion of an electric car. A key way to reduce costs and remain more competitive in the EV sector is to produce cells through a partnership with suppliers or with a wholly-owned facility. Tesla does both, as the company purchases cells from LG Chem and CATL, and through a partnership with Panasonic at its Gigafactory Nevada site. Additionally, Tesla produces its own 4680 cells at the Kato Road facility in Northern California. These cells have yet to be installed into vehicles, but will be in the future and will decrease battery costs while increasing power, range, and efficiency.

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Farley believes that the partnership will help avoid battery constraints for its vehicles, an issue that has plagued the automotive sector this year, except with semiconductors.

Interestingly, it is a major backtrack from what Ford’s former stance on battery production was. Last year, then-Ford CEO Jim Hackett commented on Tesla’s strategy to produce its own cells, stating it had “no advantage.

Hackett said:

“I’ve met with a number of the people that you know that are in the supply side of this. And it was our estimation, in fact, our whole team went through a really deep dive on this six months ago, that the supply chain has ramped up since Elon built his Gigafactory. And so there’s plenty there that does not warrant us to migrate our capital into owning our own factory. There’s no advantage in the ownership in terms of cost or sourcing as what Ford can draw on.”

After Farley took the helm at Ford on October 1, 2020, he seemed to indicate that things were heading in a different direction than Hackett indicated. “Absolutely, we’re discussing it as a team,” when asked about Ford’s potential to produce its own cells.

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Ford’s F-150 Lightning will start from $39,974 to $90,474 and will offer up to 300 miles of range with its extended range battery.

Ford F-150 Lightning unveiled: Price, Release date, Range, Features and more

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, or you can email me at joey@teslarati.com or Tweet me @KlenderJoey.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Tesla Board Chair discusses what is being done to protect CEO Elon Musk

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Credit: xAI

Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm met with Bloomberg this morning to discuss a variety of topics, but perhaps one of the most interesting was her comments on what is being done to protect company CEO Elon Musk.

After the assassination of right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk this week, there have been concerns about Musk’s safety, as well as that of other high-profile business leaders and political figures.

Earlier this week, Musk said himself that his security detail would be increased significantly following Kirk’s death, a move that many investors and fans of the company had requested because of political violence.

Elon Musk assures Tesla investors he will enhance his security detail

“Definitely need to enhance security,” Musk said. Tesla spent $3.3 million on Musk’s security in 2024 and January and February 2025. For reference, Meta spent over $27 million on Mark Zuckerberg’s security last year, which is higher than any other tech CEO.

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During Denholm’s appearance on Bloomberg TV earlier today, she stated that the company has been focused on Musk’s security detail for “many years,” especially considering he is one of the richest people on Earth and holds an incredible amount of influence.

“It is something that we take very seriously; he takes it very seriously as well. So, again, from a board perspective, it is something we’ve discussed at length,” Denholm said.

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Denholm added that she believes “there is not anyone in a boardroom that is not touched by what has happened with Charlie Kirk.”

Although Musk’s political involvement has toned down significantly in the past, he still has enemies, especially based on groups that oppose him and the company specifically. Based on this week’s events, it feels that increased security is a necessary expense Tesla must account for.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla bear turns bullish for two reasons as stock continues boost

“I think from a trading perspective, it looks very interesting,” Nathan said, citing numerous signs of strength, such as holding its 200-day moving average and holding against its resistance level.

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Credit: Tesla Manufacturing

A Tesla bear is changing his tune, turning bullish for two reasons as the company’s stock has continued to get a boost over the past month.

Dan Nathan, a notorious skeptic of Tesla shares, said he is changing his tune, at least in the short term, on the company’s stock because of “technicals and sentiment,” believing the company is on track for a strong Q3, but also an investment story that will slowly veer away from its automotive business.

“I think from a trading perspective, it looks very interesting,” Nathan said, citing numerous signs of strength, such as holding its 200-day moving average and holding against its resistance level.

He also said he believes a rally for the stock could continue as it heads into the end of the quarter, especially as the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit is coming to an end at the end of the month.

With that being said, he believes the consensus for Q3 deliveries is “probably low,” as he believes Wall Street is likely underestimating what Tesla will bring to the table on October 1 or 2 when it reports numbers for the quarter.

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Tesla shares are already up over five percent today, with gains exceeding nine percent over the past five trading days, and more than fourteen percent in the past month.

While some analysts are looking at the performance of other Mag 7 stocks, movement on rates from the Federal Reserve, and other broader market factors as reasoning for Tesla’s strong performance, it appears some movement could be related to the company’s recent developments instead.

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Over the past week, Tesla has made some strides in its Robotaxi program, including a new license to test the platform in the State of Nevada, which we reported on.

Tesla lands regulatory green light for Robotaxi testing in new state

Additionally, the company is riding the tails of the end of the EV tax credit, as inventory, both new and used, is running extremely low, generally speaking. Many markets do not have any vehicles to purchase as of right now, making delivery by September 30 extremely difficult.

However, there has been some adjustments to the guidelines by the IRS, which can be read here:

Tesla set to win big after IRS adjusts EV tax credit rules

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Tesla is trading at around $389 at 10:56 a.m. on the East Coast.

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Tesla lands regulatory green light for Robotaxi testing in new state

This will be the third state in total where Tesla is operating Robotaxi, following Austin and California.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has landed a regulatory green light to test its Robotaxi platform in a new state, less than three months after the ride-hailing service launched in Texas.

Tesla first launched its driverless Robotaxi suite in Austin, Texas, back on June 22. Initially offering rides to a small group of people, Tesla kept things limited, but this was not to be the mentality for very long.

It continued to expand the rider population, the service area, and the vehicle fleet in Austin.

The company also launched rides in the Bay Area, but it does use a person in the driver’s seat to maintain safety. In Austin, the “Safety Monitor” is present in the passenger’s seat during local rides, and in the driver’s seat for routes that involve highway driving.

Tesla is currently testing the Robotaxi platform in other states. We reported that it was testing in Tempe, Arizona, as validation vehicles are traveling around the city in preparation for Robotaxi.

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Tesla looks to make a big splash with Robotaxi in a new market

Tesla is also hoping to launch in Florida and New York, as job postings have shown the company’s intention to operate there.

However, it appears it will launch in Nevada before those states, as the company submitted its application to obtain a Testing Registry certification on September 3. It was processed by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles Office of Business Licensing on September 10.

It will then need to self-certify for operations, essentially meaning they will need to comply with various state requirements.

This will be the third state in total where Tesla is operating Robotaxi, following Austin and California.

CEO Elon Musk has stated that he believes Robotaxi will be available to at least half of the U.S. population by the end of the year. Geographically, Tesla will need to make incredible strides over the final four months of the year to achieve this.

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