ST THOMAS — From mining critical minerals to building batteries and cars, Ontario and Canada continue to attract historic, transformational investments across the electric vehicle supply chain to secure more good-paying jobs for workers today and for decades to come.
Last month, Ontario and Canada secured a historic investment from Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker. Volkswagen is investing $7 billion to establish its first overseas electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, Ontario. This is the largest electric vehicle-related investment in Canadian history, signaling a strong vote of confidence in Ontario and Canada’s highly-skilled workers, strong economies, and competitive business environments.
Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were joined today by Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, and the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, to highlight this generational deal for St. Thomas, Ontario, and Canada’s entire electric vehicle supply chain.
The plant, Volkswagen’s largest to date, will create up to 3,000 direct jobs and up to 30,000 indirect jobs. Once complete in 2027, the plant will produce batteries for up to one million electric vehicles per year, bolstering Canada’s domestic battery manufacturing capacity to meet the demand for electric vehicles now and into the future. The plant, which will generate about $200 billion in value, will be the largest manufacturing plant in Canada. Construction is expected to begin next year.
To strengthen and grow St. Thomas and the surrounding communities, Ontario will invest in other important infrastructure projects across the region, including improvements to roads, highways, utility services, and police and fire services.
Since 2020, historic new investments have been made in Ontario by global automakers and electric vehicle batteries and battery materials suppliers. From mining critical minerals to building batteries and electric vehicles, Ontario and Canada have the resources and skilled workers to continue leading the world. This means a strong economy, good-paying jobs, and clean air now and into the future. tool, die, and mold makers, and over 300 connected and autonomous companies. The province is the only place in North America where five major automakers build their vehicles, including Honda, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
- Volkswagen Group is one of the world’s largest automakers with a portfolio of 10 companies.
- Volkswagen’s new EV battery manufacturing facility will be approximately 370 acres, which is larger than 378 American football fields. The entire industrial and supplier park will be 1,500 acres.
- In August 2022, the Government of Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Volkswagen to advance cooperation on electric vehicle battery manufacturing in Canada.
- Since the beginning of 2022, the governments of Ontario and Canada have helped attract other historic investments across our electric vehicle supply chain – from mining to manufacturing – and provided funding to position Ontario and Canada as global leaders in battery manufacturing. This included support to:
- Retool Honda Canada’s manufacturing operations in Alliston, Ontario, to launch the next generation of hybrid-electric vehicles; and
- Modernize automaker Stellantis’ assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ontario, to help the company increase production of electric vehicles.
- Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Canada’s Next Steps for Clean Air and a Strong Economy is an ambitious and achievable roadmap that outlines a sector-by-sector approach for Canada to reach its climate target of cutting emissions by 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and to put us on track toward our goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
- Transportation accounts for about a quarter of our emissions in Canada. That’s why the Government Canada has an ambitious target of 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, coupled with a suite of support measures from charging infrastructure to purchase incentives.
- Phase 2 of Driving Prosperity, Ontario’s 10-year vision for the automotive sector, focuses on transforming the auto sector by building electric, autonomous and connected vehicles and supporting a broader supply chain that includes the exploration, mining and production of critical minerals for the fabrication of electric batteries in Ontario.