Ford, in collaboration with GE Healthcare, will leverage the design of Airon Corp.'s FDA-cleared ventilator to produce in Michigan.

General Electric and Ford Motor will produce 50,000 ventilators for the U.S. government under the Defense Production Act for $336 million, federal officials announced Thursday.

Production of the ventilators is expected to begin next week at a Ford facility in Michigan. The companies are expected to produce all the ventilators by July 13, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to the terms in the announcement, each ventilator would cost $6,720. That's nearly $10,000 below a previous federal contract for 30,000 ventilators at $489.4 million, or about $16,300 per unit, with General Motors and Washington-based Ventec Life Systems.

Ventilators have a wide-range of pricing from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands. The GM-Ventec one is a more advanced critical care ventilator that delivers precise air. It has different settings to help improve blood-oxygen levels in someone suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome and wean them off the ventilator.

The federal contract is the second for GE Healthcare regarding ventilator production. Earlier in the week, a deal was announced for 2,410 ventilators for $64.1 million, or about $26,600 per unit.

A Ford spokesman said production of the ventilators will be done at-cost. GM also said it would not be profiting from its ventilator production.

Tom Westrick, vice president and chief quality officer of GE Healthcare, previously said the more "basic" ventilators are "well-suited to address the urgent needs during the Covid crisis."