No Place Like Ohm: VW considers Ontario for battery plant

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It seems Canada is one step closer to welcoming yet another major manufacturer of EV batteries to its shores. As reported by the industry watchers at Electric Autonomy Canada, Volkswagen is taking a close look at Ontario as a location for its new facility.

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It’s all part of an agreement first announced in December of last year. At the time, CEO Oliver Blume said “Canada is a logical option for the construction of a gigafactory in the North American region,” referring to VW’s plan to work with its newly created PowerCo SE battery company to accelerate the build-up of its global battery business through rapid expansion in North America. At the time, Canadian cabinet minister François-Philippe Champagne, along with Blume, signed an addendum to the existing memorandum of understanding (MoU) to identify suitable sites for a cell factory in Canada.

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And while Ontario simply makes sense for such a location – supply-chain reasons, logistic advantages, supply of skilled workers – today’s news from Electric Autonomy Canada is the first solid indication VW and PowerCo is likely to throw down roots somewhere in the Golden Horseshoe. “The country offers high sustainability standards and ideal economic conditions and the government of Canada has already proven to be a strong and reliable partner,” Blume said in December.

Of course, it is always worth tempering this type of news with a well-placed glass of cold water. In almost all circumstances, MoU documents are just that — an understanding between companies and governments about working towards some sort of project or solution. VW’s own words on this matter at the end of last year included the term “non-binding” as part of a block of bolded text, it should be noted. Until shovels are in the ground – actually, until the doors are open and batteries are being carted off the assembly line – nothing is set in stone.

Nevertheless, it’s nearly always a net-positive for Canada to be at the forefront of these types of talks, especially when the facility in question is described by VW as the first of its type in North America. With a raft of EVs on the horizon whose names are all various permutations of “ID,” VW will need all the batteries it can get — and Canada seems poised to provide them.