“If I had given Honda 300 or 400 megawatts, that would have been less for others. It takes a balance,” indicated the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, who would have liked to have had the $2G or $3G cathode component of the Honda project, which ultimately leaned towards Ontario rather than Quebec.
“If Honda was the first cathode project, I would have been more aggressive, but there are $16 billion in investments. It’s going to end up at $20 billion,” summarized Pierre Fitzgibbon in a press scrum on Tuesday.
“The battery industry does not need Honda to succeed,” he added.
Monday, The newspaper confirmed news first reported by Bloomberg that Japanese manufacturer Honda had stopped in Ontario for its mega-factory of electric vehicles and battery components.
Fitzgibbon disappointed
Questioned by journalists, the battery minister of the Legault government did not hide his disappointment.
“We always like to win, but I think there were extenuating circumstances,” he stressed.
Pierre Fitzgibbon recalled that Honda was already present in Ontario and that Quebec already had three cathode projects, namely Ford, GM and Northvolt.
He claimed to have been approached by Honda and to have had several discussions with the company for the cathode component of “$2 billion or $3 billion”.
“It was interesting. I would have liked to have it, but there was a price, support that had to be given,” he concluded.
– With the collaboration of Marc-André Gagnon
