Ford and SK Innovation battery venture will also operate in Europe

Ford Motor’s electric vehicle battery joint venture with SK Innovation will extend beyond North America into Europe, according to a senior Ford executive.

“We’re very excited about this joint venture and it’s going to be beyond just North America,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer, during J.P. Morgan conference. “It will certainly extend into Europe.”

On Wednesday, Thai-Tang said apart from batteries and battery pack assembly, the automaker also has brought in house the production of gear boxes and motors for electrification, and was looking at software and semiconductor chips for potential vertical integration.

A global chip shortage crisis has caused automakers including Ford to decrease vehicle production.