Volkswagen is coming to Ontario with plans to build a massive electric vehicle battery plant in the city of St. Thomas.
“This is the single largest investment in the auto sector in the history of Canada,” federal industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told the Sun Monday.
VW, not known for having a strong manufacturing presence in North America, committed to $7.1 billion through 2030 as part of its electrical and digital transformation. The previous announcement spoke of new plants in Chattanooga, Tenn., as well as in Puebla, Mexico but the company also indicated it was looking for additional manufacturing sites.
Details on the size and scope of this announcement have not yet been released by Volkswagen nor have federal or provincial government officials provided details. The deal, however, is being described as unprecedented in terms of the direct investment from the company and in relation to jobs for the area with one source indicating this project would be larger than the $5 billion investment from Stellantis last year.
“We’regoing to leave the numbers to Volkswagen to announce the size, the scale, the employees, the investment, the dates, all of those numbers will be announced by Volkswagen,” Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development told the Sun on Monday.
Over the last year, a full court press — led by the Ontario government’s ministry of economic development and fully supported by their federal counterpart — sought to land the VW deal. Provincial officials had at least seven in-person meetings with VW starting in April 2022 and culminating in regular weekly conference calls since October.
Fedeli travelled to Germany to meet VW officials in October. Champagne visited VW this past fall as part of the push to seal the deal.
“Today’s news is a major vote of confidence in Canada and Ontario, and in our shared work to position the country and the province as a global leader on the electric vehicle supply chain,” Fedeli and Champagne said in a joint statement Monday.
“This historic investment is a testament to Canada’s strong and growing battery ecosystem and Ontario’s competitive business environment.”
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The plant will be situated on 1,500 acres of land the municipality and the province have helped cobble together as part of Ontario’s Job Site Challenge program. The program, launched in 2019, sought to find parcels of land that could be marketed directly to companies looking to invest but needing large, shovel-ready plots of land.
In addition to having the parcels of land ready to go, the program seeks to ensure all permits and other factors that can delay a project are looked after ahead of time to make the site more lucrative. It seems to have worked with VW, which visited the site last fall in addition to scouting several American locations.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, called this deal a real win for teamwork between the federal and provincial governments.
“This is the result of an extraordinary effort by Francois-Philippe Champagne to court the first new carmaker to Canada in 35 years,” Volpe said. “It’s an indelible victory for Vic Fedeli’s legacy of driving down the cost of business where it counts in Ontario.”
Volpe also praised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford, both of whom were involved in courting the company.
Trudeau was recently making calls to VW executives to seal the deal while Ford reportedly hosted company executives during a visit to Ontario to consider prospective sites. One government official also praised the work of Mayor Joe Preston in St. Thomas for working closely with both senior levels of government to get the deal done.
The deal helps solidify Ontario’s position as a key part of the North American auto supply chain.
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