2023-04-21 07:00:00
The Volkswagen Group wants its battery company Power-Co SE to build its largest gigafactory to date in St. Thomas, Ontario/Canada. In the final expansion stage, the annual production capacity should be up to 90 gigawatt hours (GWh), sufficient for around one million battery-electric cars. This was announced by Thomas Schmall, Board Member for Group Technology at Volkswagen AG, today in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The planned investment of up to EUR 4.8 billion (approximately C$7 billion) by 2030 might create up to 3,000 factory jobs and tens of thousands of supplier and service provider jobs in the region. Prime Minister Trudeau said the investment is regarding creating good middle-class jobs “now and in the future, clean air for our children and grandchildren, and a strong economy that works for all Canadians.” The Volkswagen electric car factory Batteries in St. Thomas will become “the country’s largest manufacturing facility,” stressed the Prime Minister.
Thomas Schmall classifies the investment from the group’s point of view with the words: “North America plays a key role in our global battery strategy. The region will become PowerCo’s second mainstay alongside Europe.” The Gigafactory opens the door to a key market for e-mobility and battery cell production. “Our goal is to make Power-Co a global player in the battery business.” The Gigafabrik St. Thomas is an important milestone, added Schmall.
St. Thomas will be the company’s first overseas gigafactory. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024. The production of a completely new cell technology, which was developed for series production, is scheduled to start in 2027. For the group, the cell factory is part of a larger plan that Volkswagen and Power-Co agreed with the Trudeau government in August last year. The signed declaration of intent aims to cover the entire battery value chain and secure raw material requirements to promote electromobility in the country.
The Group sees the decision to expand Power-Co’s cell production network to Canada as proof of the ambitions of the Volkswagen Group’s growth strategy in North America. These include launching the broadest portfolio of all-electric vehicles in the US and Canada by 2030, expanding Electrify America’s coast-to-coast charging network in the US and Canada, and iconic brand Scout announcing their first all-electric vehicles in 2026 to deliver (awm)
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