MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nearly 1 million people live within a 45-minute drive of the new Ford electric vehicle plant in rural West Tennessee, and 186,000 of them already have the skill sets for an automotive plant, the team promoting the site told Memphis-area leaders Monday.
By that standard, they say the area looks “as good or better” than Tupelo, Tuscaloosa and Chattanooga — three nearby cities that have been transformed by auto plants in the last 15 years.
Mark Herbison, part of the team that helped lure Ford and SK electric to the 41,000-acre megasite, now known as Blue Oval City, updated local leaders on progress Monday.
“If you go out to the megasite today, you will see trucks everywhere …,” Herbison said. “It is happening, and it’s happening right now.”
By next summer about 8,000 people will be working on the construction of the plant, he said.
The electric truck and battery manufacturer, a $5.6 billion investment, is committed to bring 5,800 new jobs by January of 2026, he said. This development will be larger in terms of square footage than other nearby auto plants, Herbison said.
“It’s really going to transform the region, I believe. This is my opinion, but we’ve never had a project in the history that had this many jobs and this much investment at the same time,” Herbison said.
Though the site is located some 45 minutes northeast of the Memphis city line, Herbison said when viewed by helicopter, the site was close enough to see from Arlington.
Herbison said the surrounding West Tennessee counties, which have largely been losing population in the past few decades, could see 50,000 new residents. Average production workers will be making somewhere around $52,000, officials said.
