Amid taking a $19.5 billion hit, primarily tied to its sinking electric-vehicle (EV) business, on Dec. 15, auto giant Ford (F:NYSE), in addition to refocusing on manufacturing gas-powered and hybrid vehicles, announced a new venture into the energy storage business. (1)
Part of the new strategy involves repurposing an EV battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky, resulting in sweeping layoffs. According to local media, approximately 1,600 workers will lose their jobs during the transition — although they will have an opportunity to claim one of the 2,100 jobs the company has committed to bringing to the plant. (2)
Ford says it’s investing $2 billion in the venture, which includes retooling the plant to create battery energy storage systems for utilities and data centers that train artificial intelligence (AI). It hopes to have the plant back up and running in 18 months.
“Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told The Wall Street Journal. (3)
So, how might a shift like this affect household energy bills?
After the federal $7,500 EV credit was eliminated under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” demand for EVs cratered across the country. U.S. sales fell more than 41% in November, according to Reuters, following the credit’s expiration at the end of September. (4)
But the market for batteries isn’t dying out completely. There’s a booming demand for energy solutions as AI data centers have created an insatiable demand for electricity. As AI usage grows, the demand for electricity is expected to grow alongside it.
As of 2023, data centers consumed around 4.4% of total U.S. electricity. The Department of Energy expects this demand to grow, projecting that data centers will consume 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028.
Ford’s decision to invest billions of dollars into the battery storage industry follows signs of potential growth in the energy sector. Data centers and utility companies may soon find themselves in need of more battery storage systems, and Ford is trying to fill some of that demand.
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Data centers consume a lot of electricity, which may be putting consumers’ electricity bills at risk.
An analysis by Carnegie Mellon University estimates that data center and cryptocurrency mining growth could push electricity bills 8% higher nationwide by 2030. (5) In high-demand markets, like Central and Northern Virginia, electricity costs could surge by over 25%.
It’s unknown exactly what the future holds when it comes to energy consumption, consumer costs and government policy, but the role energy-storage systems can play is more clear. Batteries can help offset power outages and help manage increased demand on power grids. Energy stored can be refilled during off-peak hours, so batteries can be ready again when needed.
“If you have an outage of a massive data center or a giant gas plant, batteries can plug that hole,” Stephanie Smith, former chief operating officer of renewable-energy company Eolian, told The Journal. (6) “They can react in microseconds, and so you’re able to address so many different problems on the entire grid.”
The Journal, citing energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, reports that installations of energy-storage batteries more than tripled nationwide from 2021 to 2024 and were projected to grow 34% in 2025.
Ford isn’t the only battery maker to make such changes as the EV market cools and energy consumption heats up. The Journal also reports that LG, which co-owns battery factories with GM, Honda and Hyundai, recently invested $1.4 billion into an EV battery plant in Michigan to now make stationary storage batteries. Tesla is another automaker with a foothold in the energy storage business, one of its biggest customers being head honcho Elon Musk’s separate AI company, xAI.
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Ford (1); WAVE (2); The Wall Street Journal (3, 6); Reuters (4); Carnegie Mellon University (5)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
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