Over the past 18 months or so, there have been numerous announcements regarding the construction of facilities dedicated to the electric shift of manufacturers. The province of Ontario was particularly blessed.
It has already seen Stellantis, Honda and Volkswagen commit to the construction of factories devoted sometimes to battery production, sometimes to the assembly of electric vehicles, sometimes both. And the authorities want to take advantage of the wave of investments that are taking place at the moment, because at some point, it will stop.
In this context, it hopes to conclude an agreement for the construction of at least one new major factory. This is what Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade, said.
In fact, the province has three other projects in its sights. She is confident of winning at least one. We’ll see about the others.
“The electric window is going to close very, very quickly,” Vic Fedeli told the Bloomberg group during an interview in Toronto. According to him, the new installations that manufacturers will require must be operational by 2027 or 2028.
Of course, everything is done with billions in subsidies, in order to attract manufacturers to Ontario. The objective is to be very active, because if we do not act quickly to maintain a share of the automobile assembly market in a context of aggressive competition from the United States and China, we will eventually lose its place and see its importance diminish on a global scale. The strategy also aims to secure the long-term future of existing factories.
Vic Fedeli would not mention which companies he was talking to, but his team focused its efforts and attention on major auto-producing countries, including the United States, Japan and Germany.
All this occurs in a context where several manufacturers are somewhat postponing the arrival of certain electric models on the market, due to a slowdown in the anticipated growth in sales of electric vehicles.
Still, we have a vision. Vic Fedeli says investments in electric vehicles are “viable in the long term,” emphasizing that sales are going well in North America and that the authorities in place are encouraging the electric shift.
We will of course have to see if the political portrait will remain the same over the coming years, both in the United States and in Canada.
Original content from auto123.
