Ford hosts first community event at Blue Oval City

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Hundreds of West Tennessee leaders made their way to Haywood County on Friday morning for the event Blue Oval City LIVE, a community event on the site of the multi-billion dollar development to give the area a progress report.

“Great day for Tennessee... a dream come true for a lot of folks for a lot of reasons,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.

Governor Lee was among the speakers at the event, touting the impact the facility will bring to West Tennessee upon completion.

Several top executives from Ford spoke on the millions in investments that have already been made outside of the site, in local non-profits and businesses in and around Haywood County.

The plant is anticipated to bring 6,000 jobs to the area, but Governor Lee is excited about the indirect jobs that will surround Blue Oval City.

“We anticipate there will be a total of 30,000 jobs in the ecosystem of the companies in suppliers that will surround this region to make sure there are the parts necessary to build these vehicles,” Lee said.

Both Lee and Ford spoke on the workforce pipeline in West TN, working with local schools and colleges to teach the skills needed to smoothly transition into a job at the Ford megasite.

The event was also an opportunity to tease the vehicle that will be manufactured there.

It’s been a mystery up until this point, and though it still isn’t clear, we know have a codename.

Ford’s President and CEO Jim Farley made the presentation.

“The codename for the truck is called T3,” Farley said. “Remember the Model T? We want to make it innovative like no other truck, but we also want it to be a pickup, functionally. We call it ‘Trust The Truck.’”

Blue Oval City is expected to be completed, with T3′s ready to be made on the assembly line, in 2025.

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