Magna investing US$790 million on Ford electric truck supplier plants in Tennessee

TORONTO – Magna International is investing more than US$790 million in the U.S. to build parts plants that will support Ford electric pickup truck production.

The Aurora, Ont., auto-parts giant says it will build two facilities in Stanton, Tenn., as part of the supplier park for Ford’s BlueOval City that will be capable of producing 500,000 electric trucks a year.

The plants will supply Ford with battery enclosures, truck frames and seats for its second-generation electric truck, while Manga will also build a stamping and assembly facility in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.

Magna is already producing battery enclosures for Ford pickup trucks at a Brampton, Ont., facility as part of numerous electric vehicle production agreements it has with automakers.

The Brampton plant, which the company announced in February as part of a C$470 million investment across several facilities in Ontario, will have about 560 jobs at full production while the latest investment in Tennessee will create about 1,300 jobs.

Ford announced Monday it was cutting prices on its F-150 Lightning trucks by as much as C$15,000 as it works to ramp up production and competition increases.