A battery manufacturing joint venture between Ford Motor Co, battery maker LG Energy Solution and Turkish industrial company Koç Holding has been cancelled.
In a statement on Friday, Koç said there has been a rethink of the foreseen battery cell production investment in Ankara by Ford and LGES with the participation of Koç Group. “It has been concluded that, considering the current pace of electric vehicle adoption, the timing is not appropriate for a battery cell investment,” it said.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) announced on 21 February has been revoked, it added. The JV, announced in February, would have created one of Europe’s largest commercial EV battery cell facilities.
Production was intended to start in 2026, with the three parties committing to at least 25GWh of annual production capacity, potentially expanding to 45GWh.
Koç said it and Ford “will remain committed” to supporting electric vehicle (EV) production at Ford Otosan’s Kocaeli plant. It will evaluate potential battery cell investments in the future in line with the dynamics of the EV market.
LG Energy told Korean media the scrapped JV will not affect its battery cell supplies to Ford. “Batteries for Ford’s commercial vehicles will be supplied from our existing factories elsewhere. We expect our partnership with Ford to continue to expand,” an LG spokesperson said.