Dive Brief:
- Ford Motor Co. announced the appointment of Dave Carroll as the new president of its battery energy storage subsidiary Ford Energy, effective Aug. 31, the automaker announced in a press release.
- Carroll takes over the role from Lisa Drake, who is retiring from the company after a 32-year career. Drake however, will remain at the company until Dec. 31, and will work with the incoming president to ensure a smooth and structured transition across Ford Energy’s manufacturing operations, customer commitments and supplier partnerships, per the release.
- Carroll will oversee all of Ford Energy’s end-to-end operations, including battery cell manufacturing, system assembly, commercial strategy and sales, reporting directly to Ford vice chair, John Lawler.
Dive Insight:
Carroll joins the automaker from clean energy solutions provider Engie North America, where he served as CEO and chief renewables officer. Engie develops and deploys low-carbon energy solutions to support its customers’ decarbonization initiatives. Over the past six years, Carroll helped grow the company's renewables operating assets by more than 12 times, according to Ford.
“Dave brings a rare, buy-side perspective on what utilities and other customers truly require as they build out power infrastructure — exactly the skill set and insight Ford Energy needs as we move from launch to scale,” Ford president and CEO Jim Farley said in an Aug. 27 press release. “Under Dave’s leadership, we will scale this business into one of North America’s leading energy storage providers.”
Drake was named president of the new Ford Energy subsidiary in January. She joined Ford in 1994 as a Ford College Graduate in powertrain engineering. She spent two decades working on the automaker’s core vehicle programs, including for its F-150 and Super Duty truck programs. Drake has served as Ford’s chief engineer for global hybrid and electric vehicles, where she helped architect the automaker’s first-generation electrified vehicles, per the release.
Ford officially launched Ford Energy in May to manufacture battery energy storage systems to meet growing demand for data centers, utilities and large industrial and commercial customers in the U.S. The unit aims to deploy a minimum of 20 GWh of battery energy storage systems annually, with first customer deliveries slated for late 2027.
Ford Energy’s flagship product will be a standardized 20-foot battery, as part of an industrial-grade energy storage system, designed around 512-amp-hour lithium iron phosphate prismatic cells. It will utilize unused production capacity at the automaker’s former joint venture electric vehicle battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky, after Ford revised its EV plans to better meet market demand.
Ford Energy’s Kentucky operations will include full battery cell manufacturing, including the assembly of modules and containers, the automaker said in May.
“I’ve spent my career developing, financing and operating energy assets, and I’m excited to join Ford because there’s no bigger opportunity in this market than building a category-defining energy business for one of America’s most iconic and important companies,” Carroll said in a statement.
