• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

New EV Battery Plant in Windsor to Create 2,500 Jobs

March 25, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes

Li-Iron batteries being charged by solar

Li-Iron batteries being charged by solar

25
SHARES
 

Canada’s first electric vehicle battery plant is coming to Windsor, Ontario, prompting the beleaguered auto sector to herald the news as a sign of better days ahead.

Scheduled to begin operations in 2024, the C$4.9-billion plant is “massive news,” Brian Kingston, CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, told CBC News.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“This is huge for Windsor, the Canadian economy, and Canadian jobs,” Kingston said. As the auto industry goes through a significant shift to electrification, he added, “for Canada to secure an investment of this size and scale into battery manufacturing … indicates that we are a player in this transition.” 

Built to supply lithium-ion batteries to Amsterdam-based automaker Stellantis NV at its North America EV factories, the new LG Energy battery plant is expected to create 2,500 new jobs in Windsor, with up to 10,000 more via ancillary sectors like the electronic components supply chain, research and development, and battery transportation.

A second LG / Stellantis battery manufacturing plant will be built in the United States, with the precise location to be made public shortly.

The agreement to build the EV plant in Windsor was brokered between Stellantis (product of a 2021 merger between Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group), the South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, and all three orders of government.

Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens earlier told CBC News that “the city would do everything in its power to make a smooth transition to the new plant, which is set to break ground later this year.” The city “kicked in a land assembly deal for the massive factory, money toward infrastructure development if needed, and a long-term tax grant,” the national broadcaster wrote.

“Our local roots are in manufacturing and automotive, and we’re darn good at it,” Dilkens said. “We’ve lived through the ups and downs of the global economy and we have lived through the ups and downs of the automotive industry. The men and women who work here never give up hope that there’s better days ahead.”

But the arrival of those better days depends on what happens next, writes Globe and Mail climate columnist Adam Radwanski. The auto industry will thrive only if Canada can “leverage the big new investment to develop a full supply chain, from mining of critical battery components all the way through battery recycling.”

He adds that “governments have talked a lot about that but not yet developed a comprehensive, quickly actionable strategy around it.”

Positive signs include the “hustle” evident in the way that Ontario’s Doug Ford government (warming up belatedly to the economic potential of EVs) and Ottawa “seem to have been working together in lockstep” to pitch Windsor as the ideal place for a battery plant, with a skilled work force, a reliable supply chain, and “potential nearby access to critical minerals” being three selling points, Radwanski says.

But securing a domestic supply of such minerals “within a decade or so” will depend on “balancing environmental protections and regulatory expedience; on building strong partnerships with Indigenous communities; on figuring out how much to subsidize projects and promote domestic ownership.”

Calling the Windsor battery plant “game-changing”, Ford said the deal would catapult the province to the “forefront of the EV revolution.” While the premier remained tight-lipped about how much the plant would cost provincial taxpayers, federal MP Julie Dabrusin (L, Toronto-Danforth) briefly tweeted that Ottawa’s share was $500 million. “By mid-morning Thursday, the MP had deleted the tweet,” CBC says.

While politicians lauded the plant agreement as an important step toward Canada achieving its zero emissions goals, EVs constitute only 5% of vehicle sales in Canada, writes Radwanski. That means Ottawa must do more to boost EV demand, from purchase incentives to better charging infrastructure, to meet the Trudeau government’s pledge that 50% of all cars sold will be zero-emissions by 2030, 100% by 2035.

Those efforts will also have to navigate the reality that manufacturing zero-emission vehicles—from batteries that require mining of rare earth minerals, to frames that require smelting steel, to fossil fuel-based tires—is very far from emissions-free, Derek Coronado, coordinator of the Citizens Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, told CBC.



in Auto & Alternative Vehicles, Batteries / Storage, Canada, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Energy Subsidies, Jobs & Training, Sub-National Governments, UK & Europe

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

sunrise windmill
International Agencies & Studies

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 4, 2023
136
Pixabay
Solar

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
123
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 4, 2023
81

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.6k
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
154
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 4, 2023
136
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
123
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
86
Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
83

Recent Posts

Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 4, 2023
81
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
36
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
53
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
871
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
77
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
100
Next Post
Ken Teegardin/flickr

Canada’s First Green Bond Raises $5B, Leaves Investors Wanting More

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}