Ford to resume building Michigan electric vehicle battery plant delayed by strike, but scale it back

Ford Motor Co. is resuming construction on a Michigan electric vehicle battery plant that the company postponed two months ago during a strike by the United Auto Workers union. But the automaker says that due to slowing electric vehicle sales growth, it will scale back the factory size, cutting the number of planned jobs from 2,500 to 1,700. The annual battery cell output will drop from enough for 400,000 vehicles per year to about 230,000. Ford put the plan on hold in late September as the union went on strike at targeted assembly plants run by Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis. The contract dispute ended last week with workers at all three voting to ratify new agreements.